A Study On Preparation And Performance Optimization Of Three-dimensional IPMC Artificial Muscle

Ionic polymer metal composite(IPMC)is a new type of electroactive polymer material with the advantage of low driving voltage,fast response,large bending displacement and light weight.However,the existing IPMC still has shortcoming of short working hours and short output power,which limits its application range.In view of some shortcomings of IPMC,this paper starts from the optimization of basement membrane,macroscopically improves the geometry of IPMC and improves the output of IPMC.Then it improves the internal microstructure of IPMC on microscopic,optimizes working medium and prolongs working time.Finally,a method for modeling complex geometry IPMC is studied and simulated to verify experiment results.The specific work is as follows:(1)Five kinds of IPMCs with gradient structure were prepared,one of which was 0.33 mm in uniform thickness,and the other four thickness variations were 0.27~0.39 mm,0.21~0.45 mm,0.15~0.51 mm,and 0.1~0.56 mm,respectively.After testing the performance of the gradient structure IPMC,it is found that the output force and displacement of the IPMC increase first and then decrease with the increase of the gradient;IPMCs with thicknesses of 0.27~0.39 mm and 0.21~0.45 mm have increased output displacement by 10% and 5% compared with the uniform thickness of IPMC,and output forces have increased by 35% and 10%.(2)A method for modeling the macroscopic three-dimensional structure IPMC is studied.Based on the experimental data of the gradient structure IPMC,the parameters in the model are set,and the output performance of various gradient structures IPMC is simulated by the second type of piezoelectric equation.After smoothing the simulation results and cross-validating the experimental results,it is concluded that the output performance of IPMC is optimal when the average thickness is 0.33 mm with the difference of 0.11 mm.(3)Two kinds of porous structure IPMC were prepared,and the inner diameter of the pores was about 60 ?m,which was favorable for the migration of the working medium with higher viscosity.After analyzing the chemical properties of the ionic liquid,the thiocyanate methyl methoxide solution with electrochemical window width(3.8 V)and low viscosity(18 mPa·s)was selected to replace the LiCl solution as the working medium of IPMC and tested.The experimental results show that the maximum displacement of ionic liquid IPMC has no obvious attenuation within 1 h of operation,and the effective working time is significantly higher than that of traditional IPMC and the maximum displacement can reach 2.4 mm.