Advanced Materials Letters

Abstract

Ionic polymer-metal composites (IPMCs) are electro-active polymers that undergo bending deformation with the stimulus of a relatively small electric field. In this research we fabricate multilayered structure of IPMC actuator using chemical decomposition method and investigate the influence of bending response on applied input voltage. The experimentally obtained results had been compared to single layered IPMC actuator. The result shows that the increment of layer on base material (Nafion-117) had increased the actuation capability of IPMC actuator. The tip displacement increases up to 20% for three layered and around 30% for four layered compared to single layered IPMC actuator under the application of 1.0V. This finding would be useful for the application where higher bending displacement is required i.e., in the robotic and biomimetic application with a very small input voltage.