Electro-active paper for a durable biomimetic actuator

Abstract

Cellulose electro-active paper (EAPap), known as a smart material, has merits in terms oflow voltage operation, light weight, dryness, low power consumption, biodegradability,abundance and low price. Since EAPap requires low power consumption, a remotely drivenactuator has been proposed using microwave power transmission. This concept is attractivefor many biomimetic systems such as crawling micro-insect robots, flying objects likedragon flies and smart wallpapers. However, the actuation performance of EAPap issensitive to humidity and degrades with time. Thus, in this paper, a durable EAPap isstudied. The fabrication of EAPap is explained and the actuation performance is shownwith applied electric field, frequency, humidity level and time. The fabrication processincludes dissolving cellulose fibers, eliminating solvent and Li ions with a mixture ofdeionized water and isopropyl alcohol, washing with water, drying and coating withgold. The morphology of the fabricated EAPap is analyzed by taking scanningelectron microscope images and x-ray diffractograms. The actuation performance istested in terms of bending displacement with frequency, time and humidity level