The Effects of Water Contents on the Performance of Ionic Polymer-Metal Composites
Date Issued
2009
Date
2009
Author(s)
Yeh, Cheng-Chia
Abstract
Recently, there has been growing interest in actuators by using ionic polymer- metal composites (IPMCs) due to their attractive properties including large deformation and low driving voltage. However, when IPMCs operate in the air, water evaporation causes the worse performance and low durability because the performance of IPMCs depends on the water contents. Hence, this article presents the effects of water contents on actuation performance of IPMCs. In our experiments, IPMCs are actuated by AC voltage under 2 hours. Because the water molecules in IPMCs evaporate into the air, the change of the actuation performance of IPMCs with decreasing water contents is investigated. Meanwhile, we further discuss the actuation mechanism of IPMCs under the different initial water contents with the different applied voltages. In our results, it was found that the largest deformation of IPMCs is obtained under the water contents of ~70%. The amplitude of IPMCs requires 100~900sec to reach the maximum of value under the different applied voltage and initial water contents. A linear relation between the peak value of current and the water contents is also presented. In addition, the hydrological-mechanical-electrical coupling model for deflection of IPMCs is also successfully investigated by electrostatic analysis and stress analysis.
Subjects
Ionic polymer-metal composites
IPMCs
water contents
evaporation
modeling
electroactive polymer
Nafion
Type
thesis