Characterization of longitudinal tensile force of millimeter thick IPMCs

Ionic polymer-metal composites (IPMCs) are an emerging class of electroactive polymers that display both actuating and sensing capabilities. In this study, a longitudinal tensile force performance of millimeter thick IPMCs was investigated. Both, 0.5 mm and 1 mm thick IPMCs with Pt electrodes were tested in tensile mode, by monitoring the change of tensile load in response to applied electric fields. The measurements were performed either under static pre-strain conditions or by dynamically increasing the tensile strain with constant rate, while switching the voltage on and off periodically. The measurements under pre-load and constant voltage were performed in order to evaluate the maximum tensile force of the samples. Our results demonstrate that Pt-IPMCs which show the blocking force in bending direction in range of 50 mN, are capable of generating tensile forces in longitudinal direction more than 1.5 N at an applied voltage of 3 V DC.

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