Manufacture and Performance of Ionic Polymer-Metal Composites

Ion-exchange Polymer Metal Composites (IPMC) are a new class of intelligent material that can be used effectively as actuators and artificial muscles. IPMC was fabricated and its displacement and force characteristics were investigated with respect to voltage, frequency and waveform of the controlling signal. A square waveform input generated slightly larger displacement and force than sinusoidal or triangular waveform. When the voltage was increased and the frequency was decreased, displacement and force were both increased. However, although the bending deformation of IPMC was large, the output force was much lower than we expected. Improvement of the force output is key and is the main obstacle to be overcome in order to make IPMC of practical use.