Actuation behaviour of polyaniline films and tubes prepared by the phase inversion technique

The phase inversion technique was used to produce polyaniline (PAn) actuators with different geometries that cannot be obtained by PAn cast from N-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone (NMP) solution in a conventional way. PAn was cast and coagulated in a water bath forming films and tubes with or without a platinum (Pt) wire helix as an interconnect. PAn was doped with hydrochloric solution (HCl, 1 M) (PAn/HCl) or methanesulfonic acid (MSA, 1 M) (PAn/MSA). In nitric acid (HNO3, 1 M) aqueous electrolyte, the actuation strain of PAn/HCl was 0.9% which increased to 2.0% and 2.7% for the tubes without and with the Pt helix, respectively. The Pt helix helped prevent the IR drop along the actuator. Comparing with NaNO3 (1 M) aqueous electrolyte, the use of HNO3 aqueous electrolyte gave better actuation stability where at least 100 cycles were observed and the final actuation strain was determined by the size of dopant. Change of coagulation bath from water to NMP (30% w/w)/water resulted in subtle difference in the Young’s modulus of PAn/MSA in oxidized and reduced states. PAn prepared by phase inversion technique is porous by nature, consequently it is brittle and exhibits a low actuation stress (0.3 - 0.4 MPa).