A Study On Actuation Performance Optimization Of Ionic Polymer Metal Composites

Ionic Polymer Metal Composite(IPMC) is a new kind of ionic Electro-active Polymer(EAP), which behaves like biological muscle bends towards the anode(in the case of cation exchange membrane) under the influence of an applied electric field. Since it has severval advantages such as flexibility, low driving voltage, large deformation, light weight, and bio-compatibility, IPMC, is regarded as smart actuating materials with high development potential.IPMC also have many shortcomings such as small output force, non-standard preparation process and short working time in the air. In view of the above questions, this dissertation has done the following aspects of the work:(1) Nafion membranes were recasted with the Nitrogen doped carbon nanocages(NCNCs) content of 0 wt%, 0.1 wt%, 0.2 wt%, and the IPMC using the recasted Nafion membranes were fabricated by electroless plating. The NCNCs doping increase the elastic modulus and water content of the Nafion membranes. The micro morphology of IPMC was observed, and the output displacement and blocking force were measured. The NCNCs were well dispersed in the 0.1 wt% NCNCs-Nafion membrane, the IPMC based on which showed the best performance.(2) IPMC with porous membrane was prepared, and the ionic liquid([EMIm]SCN) replaced water as the electrolyte of IPMC. Because of the porous structure in Nafion membrane, the response speed and output performance of IPMC have been greatly improved. In addition, when the ionic liquid is used as the working medium, the air-operation time of the IPMC is obviously prolonged, and the back relaxation under the direct current voltage is also eliminated.(3) A surface roughening device was demonstrated for the IPMC membranes based on the UMT-2 friction-abrasion testing machine. Compared with manual surfaces roughening treatment, mechanical surface roughening treatments under three kinds of load was used. The results showed that mechanical roughening method can exclude the human factors in the roughening process, and produce controllable loading strength and direction, making the polishing cracks uniform in depths and directions. Compared with manual surfaces roughening treatment, the compactness constructed between interfaces between membranes and metal electrodes can be improvedand te blocking force and displacement of the IPMC can be enhanced by the mechanical surface roughening treatments.