Fractal recognition and contact characteristics of ionic electroactive polymer interface based on microstructure analysis

Abstract

Interface research is one of the basic topics in the study of mass transfer dynamics and actuation deformation processes. The main objective of this paper is to conduct in-depth research on the interface characteristics of ionic electroactive polymers, and this problem has not been studied to a large extent until now. The formation of the interface is closely related to the factors such as substrate pretreatment, the electroless plating process and the adsorption of ions. The interface has an irregular and self-similar microstructure, fractal theory can well analyze its intrinsic fractal characteristics. Based on the three-dimensional rough interface, the fractal characteristics of six two-dimensional cross-sections were identified. The fractal dimension, relative error, correlation coefficient and scale-free interval obtained by these six methods were quantitatively compared. The interfacial morphological characteristics of the ion-activated polymer were analyzed experimentally and the optimal fractal dimension calculation method was determined. A fractal contact model of the ionic electroactive polymer was developed and the calculation of the peel strength of the interface was proposed. The results show that RMSM is a feasible and effective method for the fractal characterization of the profiles of ionically electroactive polymers. The interfacial contact model based on fractal features can effectively characterize the peeling strength of the interface, which can provide a reference for later microscopic fractal studies on the theories of mass transfer process, actuation deformation and ion migration.