Improved IPMC sensing by use of cation and through induced nano-to-micro scale surface cracks

Abstract

Ionic Polymer Metal Composite (IPMC) is a nano-scale metal deposited ionic polymer and may be used as soft actuator and sensor. Numerous researches have been conducted to study IPMC as actuator. Many other applications like energy harvesting, impact sensing and velocity sensing use IPMC as a sensor, thus making it necessary to understand sensing nature of IPMC. It has been demonstrated that production of charge under the influence of mechanical deformation in IPMC, is a combined effect of chemical, mechanical and electrical response which may be affected by nature of existing cation and, conductivity and morphology of electrodes. This paper presents a comparison between the sensing behavior of IPMC under the influence of different cations like Li+, Na+ and H+. In addition, experiments were also performed to study the effect of nano-to-micro scale surface cracks in IPMC. It was also discovered that inducing nano-to-micro scale surface cracks in IPMC improves the sensing characteristics of IPMC. Experiments were also performed to compare the effect of electrode surface morphology and conductivity on sensing performance of IPMC. These effects were also compared for energy harvesting applications of IPMC.