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Article
Investigation of spray-coated silver-microparticle electrodes for ionic electroactive polymer actuators
Journal of Applied Physics
  • Catherine Meis, Iowa State University
  • Nicole N. Hashemi, Iowa State University
  • Reza Montazami, Iowa State University
Document Type
Article
Publication Version
Published Version
Publication Date
1-1-2014
DOI
10.1063/1.4870181
Abstract

We have employed the easy-to-scale-up method of spray-coating in combination with layer-by-layer self-assembly technique to fabricate ionic electroactive polymer actuators (IEAPAs). IEAPAs with spray-coated silver microparticle electrodes demonstrate enhanced strain and response time when compared to nearly identical, optimized conventional IEAPA with gold leaf electrodes. The results demonstrate that strain of these IEAPAs increases with the decrease of thickness of the outer silver microparticle electrodes. In addition, the response time of the actuators at frequencies of 1 and 10 Hz improves compared to optimized conventionally fabricated IEAPA. It was found that samples consisting of spray-coated silver electrodes can charge up to ∼3 times faster than conventional actuators at 1 Hz frequency. Faster charging/discharging results in higher mobility of ions within the actuator and thus, faster actuation. Given the relatively large thickness of the silver microparticle electrodes (∼50× gold leaf), similar strain was observed due to the lower Young's modulus of spray-coated layers compared to that of bulk material.

Comments

The following article appeared in Journal of Applied Physics 115, 134302 (2014); 1 and may be found at doi:10.1063/1.4870181.

Rights
Copyright 2014 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics.
Copyright Owner
American Institute of Physics
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Citation Information
Catherine Meis, Nicole N. Hashemi and Reza Montazami. "Investigation of spray-coated silver-microparticle electrodes for ionic electroactive polymer actuators" Journal of Applied Physics Vol. 115 Iss. 134302 (2014) p. 1 - 6
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/nastaran_hashemi/5/