Ionic electroactive polymer actuators based on nano-carbon electrodes

This review paper focuses on the recent studies of electroactive polymer actuators that have a triple-layered configuration composed of an ionic-gel electrolyte layer sandwiched by nano-carbon dispersed ionic-liquid gel electrode layers (bucky-gel actuator) for the purpose of development of practical devices. The review covers recent studies of the developments of the materials of the bucky-gel actuators and their electromechanical modeling. In the final section, the application to an ultra-thin and ultra-light Braille display based on the bucky-gel actuator is described. (C) 2013 Society of Chemical Industry