Fabrication And Characterization Of Novel Ionic Polymer-metal Composite (IPMC)

In last decades, a variety of electroactive polymers that exhibit substantial deformations in responses to electrical inputs voltage have been emerged. The performance of the developed polymer actuators exceeds that of natural muscle in many respects, making it particularly attractive for biomedical devices, medical prostheses, biomimetic robots, entertainment toys, and micro/nano electromechanical systems.Ionic polymer-metal composite has considerable potential in electric actuation as a intelligent material. The composites are also capable of sensing motion by producing a voltage difference when bent by a mechanical force. Work to date has yielded large bending displacements with very low-input (1-3V) voltages.At present, Nafion based on a perfluorinated ionomer is a kind of commercially available, state-of-the art membrane used in IPMC actuators. Although it has good chemical and physical properties for ionic IPMC actuator applications, it has severe performance limitations at temperatures higher than 80? and at low humidity. At these conditions, proton conductivity drops considerably due to membrane dehydration. In addition, the cost of Nafion is extremely high because of the complex and extensive chemistry required for synthesis. It is important to develop alternative proton conductive materials and electrodes for the industry of IPMC.Based on the structure of materials, designed and synthesised the crosslinked polyvinylalcohol(PVA) system and polyvinylalcohol/graphite oxide(PVA/GO) system as the new types of IPMC matrix and studying the relationship between the structure and properties of polymer. In the terms of electrodes, we choice the polypyrrole(PPy) as the electrode. We enriched the PPy electrode on the surface of matrix successfully.In order to reduce the costs and simplify the fabricating procedure, a two-step methods are used to fabricate the IPMC. Firstly, we use water-soluble, film-forming and crosslinking methods to prepare the matrix. Secondly, chemical plating methods are used to fabricate the electrode.The crosslinked s-PVA membranes were characterized using a FT-IR spectroscope, a scanning electron microscope (SEM), an atomic force microscope(AFM) and assessed in terms of water absorption(WUP), Linear expansion(LE), proton conductivity, Tensile properties and Blocking force.Among the prepared ionomers, the s-PVA membrane obtained at PVA:SSA: 5-SSIPA=10:1:1(120?) exhibit the best actuation performance. The membrane was successfully plated via the electroless plating method without any crack and broken with blocking force 22 gf/g. The membranes with GO filler were fabricated. Among them, the membrane with 15 wt% content showed the highest actuation blocking 25 gf/g under 1 V voltage with frequency of 60 s.