Conducting polymer actuators applications

Conducting-polymer actuators have been developed for several applications by the Wollongong group [9]. These include the use of bUayer PPy actuators in a cochlear ear implant [85]. Hollow-tube actuators with helical wire interconnects have also been developed for use in an electronic Braille screen [39]. A trilayer actuator valve has been included in a combined sensor-actuator system to control a gas valve inlet for food... 

G. Alici, B. Mui, and C. Cook, Bending modeling and its experimental verification for conducting polymer actuators dedicated to manipulation applications. Sens. Actuat. A, A126 (2), 396 04 (2006). 

G. Alici and N.N Huynh, Performance quantification of conducting polymer actuators for real applications A microgripping system, lEEE/ASME Trans. Mechatrort, 12 (1), 73-84 (2007). 

M. Fuchiwaki, K. Tanaka, and K. Kaneto, Planate conducting polymer actuator based on polypyrrole and its application, Sens. Actual. A, A150 (2), 272-276 (2009). 

Another linear stroke polymer actuator has been proposed by Ding et al. (2003). It is based on hollow PPy fibers with a helical wire interconnect. Its preparation is shown in Fig. 4. This actuator configuration, which provides up to 5 % axial strain, usable strains (>1 %) to at least 8 MPa and peak strain rates of up to 13 % per second, can be used in the applications typified by a Braille display, which is described in the chapter of this book on the applications of conducting polymer actuators. A two-electrode arrangement was used to quantify fire performance of fire actuator under various inputs. 

Alici G, Huynh NN (2007) Performance quantification of conducting polymer actuators for real applications a microgripping system. lEEE/ASME Trans Mechatron 12 73-84 Alici G, Spinks G, Huynh NN, Sarmadi L, Minato R (2007) Establishment of a biomimetic device based on tri-layer polymer actuators - propulsion fins. Bioinspir Biomim 2 S18 Alici G, Devaud V, Renaud P, Spinks G (2009) Conducting polymer microactuators operating in air. J Micromech Microeng 19 025017... 

Conducting polymers have found applications in a wide variety of areas,44 45 and many more have been proposed. From an electrochemical perspective, the most important applications46 appear to be in batteries and supercapacitors 47,48 electroanalysis and sensors49-51 electrocatalysis,12,1, 52 display and electrochromic devices,46 and electromechanical actuators.53... 

In recent several years, super-capacitors are attracting more and more attention because of their high capacitance and potential applications in electronic devices. The performance of super-capacitors with MWCNTs deposited with conducting polymers as active materials is greatly enhanced compared to electric double-layer super-capacitors with CNTs due to the Faraday effect of the conducting polymer as shown in Fig. 9.18 (Valter et al., 2002). Besides those mentioned above, polymer/ CNT nanocomposites own many potential applications (Breuer and Sundararaj, 2004) in electrochemical actuation, wave absorption, electronic packaging, selfregulating heater, and PTC resistors, etc. The conductivity results for polymer/CNT composites are summarized in Table 9.1 (Biercuk et al., 2002). 

The potential benefits of using ionic liquids as electrolytes in conducting polymer devices have been investigated by a number of authors in recent years, for applications such as actuators [8-17], supercapacitors [18-20], electrochromic devices [12, 21] and solar cells [22], with significant improvements in lifetimes and device performance reported. 

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