Electrochemical properties and actuation mechanisms of actuators using carbon nanotube-ionic liquid gel

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the dependence of anionic species of ionic liquid (IL) on electrochemical properties and actuation mechanism of the actuator using the carbon nanotube-ILs gel electrode. 1-Ethyl-3-methylimidazolium (EMI +) was selected as a cation for ILs. As a result, DCA ([N(CN) 2] −) anion performed much better as an actuator using polymer-supported bucky-gel electrode containing internal IL. In low frequencies, the generated strain of polymer-supported bucky-gel electrode of the actuator depended on the size of anion of IL. It, which was the small van der Waals volumes of IL anions (BF 4 − and [N(CN) 2] −), was considered to be large for the usual bending mechanism and the charge injection, in addition, for other bending mechanism of the intercalation/deintercalation into the diameter of the single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) and into the SWNT bundles. In addition to that, we compared the actuator using polymer-supported bucky-gel electrode to the actuator using non-polymer-supported bucky-gel electrode. As a result, the generated strain of polymer-supported bucky-gel electrode of the actuator was considered to be attributed to the volume-change for polymer-IL gel of the cathode and that of the anode.