Research On Preparation And Electromechanical Properties Of Transparent IPMC

Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite(IPMC)is a flexible smart material composed of a middle polymer layer and electrode layers on both sides.Due to its unique advantages such as low driving voltage,fast response speed,good flexibility and large deformation,it has been explored in many fields such as electronic devices,bionic robots,and biomedicine.With the continuous expansion of the application fields,requirements for IPMC materials with some new properties have been put forward.For example,in the field of electronic devices,many flexible electronic devices demand certain optical transparency of smart materials,and theirfore application of IPMC materials to this field requires the development of transparent IPMCs.This paper focuses on the exploration of transparent IPMC preparation process and related performance.Firstly,the preparation process of transparent IPMCs was investigated.Nafion/IL film is used as the intermediate polymer layer,and AgNW(silver nanowire)as well as PEDOT:PSS(poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/polystyrene sulfonic acid)are tried as electrode layer materials,respectively.Both immersion method and coating method were explored to fabricate transparent IPMCs based on AgNW electrode.The results showed that the coating method could be successfully adopted to prepare transparent IPMC,but the so-made transparent IPMC with AgNW electrode exhibited poor performance and poor attachment between electrodes and the polymer,which may lead to many potential problems during application.The hot pressing method and the roll coating method were explored to fabricate transparent IPMCs with PEDOT:PSS electrodes respectively.We found that the roller coating method could prepare a relatively uniform transparent IPMC,which showed fine low-voltage driving characteristics.Secondly,the microscopic properties,transparency,electrochemical properties,mechanical properties,and driving properties of transparent IPMC based on PEDOT:PSS electrodes were systematically studied.Our self-made transparent IPMC had the threelayer structure as traditional IPMC,and also had better electrochemical characteristics and mechanical properties.Experimental results showed that as the electrode content increases,the maximum tip displacement of the transparent IPMC sample increased;the maximum tip displacement increased with the increase of the voltage signal amplitude,and decreased with the increase of the driving frequency,which meaned that the transparent IPMC carried the characteristics of high-frequency attenuation.When a DC voltage is applied to the transparent IPMC,the maximum displacement can be reached within 0.5s after the voltage is applied,and then the displacement shows a small decrease,indicating that the transparent IPMC has the characteristics of reverse relaxation.Finally,the sensing characteristics of transparent IPMC based on PEDOT:PSS electrodes were briefly explored,the test platform was built,and the magnitude of the sensing voltage signal generated by the transparent IPMC was measured and analyzedIn this paper,the development of transparent IPMC preparation process was studied,and an optimized method was provided.Systematic evaluation on the performance of transparent IPMC was also carried out,which will provide important references for the future application of transparent IPMC materials.