Ionic Conductive Polymers

Abstract

Electro active polymers (EAPs) are attracting considerable interest due to their special characteristics, including high flexibility and low weight. Ionic conductive polymers have the potential to play a main role in the realization of smart systems for applications such as bio inspired and autonomous robotics, medical devices, and aerospace. Ionic polymer-metal composites (IPMCs) are one of the most promising EAP materials for the artificial muscle-like actuators and sensors. Typical applications of IPMC are soft robotic actuators, since they are suitable for micro actuators in devices used in the human body due to their flexibility and good biological compatibility. In this chapter, the fundamental aspects of the IPMC, i.e., typical fabrication methods, evaluation techniques for testing, recent results of fabrication of miniaturized IPMC, and recent developments of materials of ion conductive polymer actuators are described.