Multi-physical model of cation and water transport in ionic polymer-metal composite sensors

Ion-migration based electrical potential widely exists not only in natural systems but also in ionic polymer materials. We presented a multi-physical model and investigated the transport process of cation and water of ionic polymer-metal composites based on our thorough understanding on the ionic sensing mechanisms in this paper. The whole transport process was depicted by transport equations concerning convection flux under the total pressure gradient, electrical migration by the built-in electrical field, and the inter-coupling effect between cation and water. With numerical analysis, the influence of critical material parameters, the elastic modulus E-wet, the hydraulic permeability coefficient K, the diffusion coefficient of cation d(II) and water d(WW), and the drag coefficient of water n(dW), on the distribution of cation and water was investigated. It was obtained how these parameters correlate to the voltage characteristics (both magnitude and response speed) under a step bending. Additionally, it was found that the effective relative dielectric constant epsilon(r) has little influence on the voltage but is positively correlated to the current. With a series of optimized parameters, the predicted voltage agreed with the experimental results well, which validated our model. Based on our physical model, it was suggested that an ionic polymer sensor can benefit from a higher modulus E-wet, a higher coefficient K and a lower coefficient d(II), and a higher constant epsilon(r). (C) 2016 AIP Publishing LLC.