Some experimental results on the dynamic performance of PAN muscles

The objective of these characterization tests was to find the optimum conditions that maximize the length variation of the chemically activated polyacrylonitrile (PAN) muscles. There are two steps of annealing and chemical treatment in the development of the PAN muscles. The effects of the annealing temperature, the duration of annealing, and the duration of the boiling in the NaOH solution on the variation of the length of PAN muscle were studied. The effect of the pH of the saturating solution on the expansion-contraction behavior of the PAN muscle was further studied. The expansion-contraction behavior of the PAN muscle when saturated with HNO3, H2SO4, and HCl was also studied.