Electroactive polymer actuators ionic applications

Najem J, Sarles S, Akle B, Leo D (2012) Biomimetic jellyfish-inspired underwater vehicle actuated by ionic polymer metal composite actuators. Smart Mater Struct 21 094026 Nakabo Y, Mukai T, Asaka K (2007) Biomimetic soft robots using IPMC. In Kim K, Tadokoro S (eds) Electroactive polymers for robotics applications. Springer, London, pp 165-198... 

The overall electroactivity of carbon-based actuators, including CNTs, CDCs, or activated carbons, predicates on two main actuation mechanisms. The first principle is based on the electronic (metallic) conductivity of carbon material. Actuators of such type need high electrical potential (field) for actuation. Actuation occurs due to carbon-carbon interaction change due to high electrical field and increased temperature (electrothermal effect) (Liu et al. 2014 Zhang et al. 2014). Another principle is diffusion of ions and ion pairs induced by applied low potential as shown in Fig. 1. These transducers usually combine carbon materials with polymer matrix and some ionic conducting media. They seem to have much more possible applications in the near future (Asaka et al. 2013). 

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