Yonas Tadesse et al 2008 Smart Mater. Struct. 17 025001 doi:10.1088/0964-1726/17/2/025001
Yonas Tadesse1,3, Shashank Priya1,3, C Ramannair Chenthamarakshan2, Norma R de Tacconi2 and Krishnan Rajeshwar2
Show affiliationsComposite stripe and zigzag actuators consisting of a sandwich polypyrrole (PPy)/polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF)/PPy structure were synthesized using potentiodynamic film growth on gold electrodes. The synthesis was done from an aqueous solution containing tetrabutylammonium perchlorate and pyrrole by polymerization at room temperature. The actuator displacement was modeled using finite element simulations. For depositing thin PPy films and thereby minimizing the response time, experimental optimization of the deposition conditions was performed. The number of current-potential (potentiodynamic) growth cycles and the thickness of the deposited PPy film were highly correlated in the initial stages of polymer film growth. The actuation response measurements indicate that the zigzag shaped actuators provide promising properties to develop artificial muscle.
Issue 2 (April 2008)
Received 21 November 2007, in final form 14 December 2007
Published 28 January 2008
Yonas Tadesse et al 2008 Smart Mater. Struct. 17 025001
Adriaan M H van der Veen et al 2007 Metrologia 44 08001
Seunghwa Ryu et al 2009 Modelling Simul. Mater. Sci. Eng. 17 075008
Rahul Biswas et al JHEP01(2004)064
C. Ray et al 2007 EPL 79 38004
Bogdan A Dobrescu et al JCAP10(2007)012
C Rimbault et al 2007 JINST 2 P09001
Kenji Matsuda 2008 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 41 074018
D Guo 2008 J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 95 012007
R E Elmquist et al 2009 Metrologia 46 01001