Study of the Influence of the Hydration Level on the Electromechanical Behavior of Nafion Based Ionomeric Polymer-metal Composites Actuators

Laos Alexandre Hirano,Shigeki Tsuchitani,Lenin Wagner Acerbi,Kunitomo Kikuchi,Carlos Henrique Scuracchio

doi:10.1590/1516-1439.353214

Laos Alexandre Hirano, Shigeki Tsuchitani + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/1516-1439.353214

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Abstract

The ionomeric electroactive polymers-metal composites (IPMC) are materials that realize bending movements in response to an electrical stimulus and can be applied to the artificial muscles development. This paper investigated the influence of the hydration level on the electromechanical behavior of Nafion based IPMC. An experimental apparatus composed by a system to measure the bending force and to control the electrical stimulus and the relative humidity around the sample was developed. The main results indicated that samples with higher hydration level produce larger bending forces, but they show a more expressive back relaxation with lower time constant. A discussion about the results considering some models described in the literature conclude the paper.

Highlights

The ionomeric polymer-metal composites (IPMC) are smart materials that realize bending movements in response to an electrical stimulus
This paper aimed to investigate the contribution of the variation of the water content in the sample on these parameters
In order to study only the effect caused by the electrical stimulus on the electromechanical behaviour of an ionomeric electroactive polymers-metal composites (IPMC) sample, avoiding the influence of variation on the water content, a chamber with relative humidity (RH) controller was developed

Summary

Introduction

The ionomeric polymer-metal composites (IPMC) are smart materials that realize bending movements in response to an electrical stimulus. In spite of a low driving voltage (1-3V), a hydrated IPMC sample is able to perform smooth bending movements with large displacements[1,2,3]. This paper presents an experimental setup to measure the force generated by Nafion based IPMC samples with platinum electrodes kept in environments with different relative humidity (RH) and activated with several voltages (under 3 V). The goal of this experiment is to investigate the influence of the hydration level of the polymeric phase on the electromechanical behaviour of the IPMC sample. The main goal is a better understanding of the influence of the water content on the parameters of the described model

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