Novel electroactive, silicate nanocomposites prepared to be used as actuators and artificial muscles

Reported herein is a newly developed nanocompositing technique that can provide an effective process tool to optimize the desirable properties of the base ionic polymer materials to be used as effective electroactive polymer (EAP) actuators and artificial muscles. We developed polymer nanocomposite (PNC) materials that incorporate clay-based layered silicates. The clay-based layered silicates were intercalated within the polymer matrix of perfluorosulfonate ionomer. A certain clay, Montmorillonite (MMT), was selected as an effective clay and was modified by a cationic surfactant in order to lower its surface energy significantly. This process gave rise to a favorable intercalation of Montmorillonite within the galleries. The obtained XRD patterns prove that the silicate layers are intercalated in a continuous polymer matrix. Such a polymer nanocomposite shows significantly improved structural and electrochemical behavior and, thus, can be successfully used as the effective base material of EAP actuators and artificial muscles. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.