High‐Performance Ionic‐Polymer–Metal Composite: Toward Large‐Deformation Fast‐Response Artificial Muscles

As promising candidates in the field of artificial muscles, ionic‐polymer–metal composites (IPMCs) still cannot simultaneously provide large deformations and fast responses, which has limited their practical applications. In this study, to overcome this issue, a Nafion‐based IPMC with high‐quality metal electrodes is fabricated via novel isopropanol‐assisted electroless plating. The IPMC exhibits a large tip displacement (35.3 mm, 102.3°) under a low direct‐current driving voltage and ultrafast response (>10 Hz) under an alternating‐current (AC) voltage. Furthermore, the simultaneous integration of a large deformation and fast response can be achieved by the IPMC under a high‐frequency (19 Hz) AC voltage, where the largest bending amplitude is 5.9 mm and the highest bending speed reaches 224.2 mm s−1 (596.2° s−1). Additionally, the lightweight IPMC exhibits a decent load capacity and can lift objects 20 times heavier. The outstanding performances of the Nafion IPMC are demonstrated by mimicking biological motions such as petal opening/closing, tendril coiling/uncoiling, and high‐frequency wing flapping. This study paves the way for the fabrication of lightweight actuators with simultaneous large displacements and fast responses for promising applications in biomedical devices and bioinspired robotics.

[1]  F. C. Wilson,et al.  The morphology in nafion† perfluorinated membrane products, as determined by wide- and small-angle x-ray studies , 1981 .

[2]  S. Nemat-Nasser.  Micromechanics of actuation of ionic polymer-metal composites , 2002 .

[3]  S. Nemat-Nasser,et al.  Comparative experimental study of ionic polymer–metal composites with different backbone ionomers and in various cation forms , 2003 .

[4]  Rachel Z. Pytel,et al.  Artificial muscle technology: physical principles and naval prospects , 2004, IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering.

[5]  L. Eric Cross,et al.  Tip Deflection and Blocking Force of Soft PZT‐Based Cantilever RAINBOW Actuators , 2004 .

[6]  Robert B. Moore,et al.  State of understanding of nafion. , 2004, Chemical reviews.

[7]  Ray H. Baughman,et al.  Playing Nature's Game with Artificial Muscles , 2005, Science.

[8]  Jang-Woo Lee,et al.  The Structure and Performance of Ionic Polymer‐Metal Composite Actuators Prepared via Electroless Plating Process Using Various Alcohols , 2007 .

[9]  Kinji Asaka,et al.  High performance fully plastic actuator based on ionic-liquid-based bucky gel , 2008 .

[10]  Kinji Asaka,et al.  Highly Conductive Sheets from Millimeter‐Long Single‐Walled Carbon Nanotubes and Ionic Liquids: Application to Fast‐Moving, Low‐Voltage Electromechanical Actuators Operable in Air , 2009 .

[11]  Kinji Asaka,et al.  Electromechanical behavior of fully plastic actuators based on bucky gel containing various internal ionic liquids , 2009 .

[12]  Wei Chen,et al.  Biocompatible Composite Actuator: A Supramolecular Structure Consisting of the Biopolymer Chitosan, Carbon Nanotubes, and an Ionic Liquid , 2010, Advanced materials.

[13]  Kinji Asaka,et al.  Flexible supercapacitor-like actuator with carbide-derived carbon electrodes , 2011 .

[14]  Jinzhu Li,et al.  Superfast-response and ultrahigh-power-density electromechanical actuators based on hierarchal carbon nanotube electrodes and chitosan. , 2011, Nano letters.

[15]  Carter S. Haines,et al.  Electrically, Chemically, and Photonically Powered Torsional and Tensile Actuation of Hybrid Carbon Nanotube Yarn Muscles , 2012, Science.

[16]  Moon Jeong Park,et al.  Fast low-voltage electroactive actuators using nanostructured polymer electrolytes , 2013, Nature Communications.

[17]  Seyed M. Mirvakili,et al.  Niobium Nanowire Yarns and their Application as Artificial Muscles , 2013 .

[18]  I. Oh,et al.  Bio‐Inspired All‐Organic Soft Actuator Based on a π–π Stacked 3D Ionic Network Membrane and Ultra‐Fast Solution Processing , 2014 .

[19]  Qiang Zhao,et al.  An instant multi-responsive porous polymer actuator driven by solvent molecule sorption , 2014, Nature Communications.

[20]  Carter S. Haines,et al.  Artificial Muscles from Fishing Line and Sewing Thread , 2014, Science.

[21]  Il-Kwon Oh,et al.  Durable and water-floatable ionic polymer actuator with hydrophobic and asymmetrically laser-scribed reduced graphene oxide paper electrodes. , 2014, ACS nano.

[22]  Matteo Aureli,et al.  Fused filament 3D printing of ionic polymer-metal composites (IPMCs) , 2015 .

[23]  Bingjie Zhu,et al.  A multi-responsive water-driven actuator with instant and powerful performance for versatile applications , 2015, Scientific Reports.

[24]  Peter Englezos,et al.  High-Performance Supercapacitors from Niobium Nanowire Yarns. , 2015, ACS applied materials & interfaces.

[25]  Huisheng Peng,et al.  Hierarchically arranged helical fibre actuators driven by solvents and vapours. , 2015, Nature nanotechnology.

[26]  Il-Kwon Oh,et al.  Sulfur and Nitrogen Co‐Doped Graphene Electrodes for High‐Performance Ionic Artificial Muscles , 2016, Advanced materials.

[27]  Metin Sitti,et al.  High-Performance Multiresponsive Paper Actuators. , 2016, ACS nano.

[28]  Ying Hu,et al.  Ordered and Active Nanochannel Electrode Design for High-Performance Electrochemical Actuator. , 2016, Small.

[29]  Onnuri Kim,et al.  One-volt-driven superfast polymer actuators based on single-ion conductors , 2016, Nature Communications.

[30]  Il-Kwon Oh,et al.  Soft but Powerful Artificial Muscles Based on 3D Graphene-CNT-Ni Heteronanostructures. , 2017, Small.

[31]  Robert J. Wood,et al.  Fluid-driven origami-inspired artificial muscles , 2017, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[32]  Seyed M. Mirvakili,et al.  Fast Torsional Artificial Muscles from NiTi Twisted Yarns. , 2017, ACS applied materials & interfaces.

[33]  Jaehyun Cho,et al.  High-Performance Electroactive Polymer Actuators Based on Ultrathick Ionic Polymer-Metal Composites with Nanodispersed Metal Electrodes. , 2017, ACS applied materials & interfaces.

[34]  Ian W Hunter,et al.  Vertically Aligned Niobium Nanowire Arrays for Fast‐Charging Micro‐Supercapacitors , 2017, Advanced materials.

[35]  K. Kim,et al.  A new high-performance ionic polymer–metal composite based on Nafion/polyimide blends , 2017 .

[36]  Stanislav N. Gorb,et al.  Bioinspired photocontrollable microstructured transport device , 2017, Science Robotics.

[37]  M. Shahinpoor,et al.  A novel multifunctional soft robotic transducer made with poly (ethylene-co-methacrylic acid) ionomer metal nanocomposite , 2017, International Journal of Intelligent Robotics and Applications.

[38]  Hualing Chen,et al.  Formation and Characterization of Dendritic Interfacial Electrodes inside an Ionomer. , 2017, ACS applied materials & interfaces.

[39]  Ian W Hunter,et al.  Multidirectional Artificial Muscles from Nylon , 2017, Advanced materials.

[40]  M. Chhowalla,et al.  Metallic molybdenum disulfide nanosheet-based electrochemical actuators , 2017, Nature.

[41]  I. P. Chen,et al.  Newton Output Blocking Force under Low-Voltage Stimulation for Carbon Nanotube-Electroactive Polymer Composite Artificial Muscles. , 2017, ACS applied materials & interfaces.

[42]  Huiqi Shao,et al.  Bioinspired Electrically Activated Soft Bistable Actuators , 2018, Advanced Functional Materials.

[43]  Chengwei Wang,et al.  Muscle‐Inspired Highly Anisotropic, Strong, Ion‐Conductive Hydrogels , 2018, Advanced materials.

[44]  Nicholas Kellaris,et al.  Peano-HASEL actuators: Muscle-mimetic, electrohydraulic transducers that linearly contract on activation , 2018, Science Robotics.

[45]  T. Fukushima,et al.  Artificial muscle-like function from hierarchical supramolecular assembly of photoresponsive molecular motors. , 2018, Nature chemistry.

[46]  Tao Chen,et al.  Mimosa inspired bilayer hydrogel actuator functioning in multi-environments , 2018 .

[47]  Xiangyang Zhu,et al.  Soft wall-climbing robots , 2018, Science Robotics.

[48]  M. Sitti,et al.  Self‐Sensing Paper Actuators Based on Graphite–Carbon Nanotube Hybrid Films , 2018, Advanced science.

[49]  Moon Jeong Park,et al.  Low-voltage-driven soft actuators. , 2018, Chemical communications.

[50]  Shane K. Mitchell,et al.  Hydraulically amplified self-healing electrostatic actuators with muscle-like performance , 2018, Science.

[51]  Seyed M. Mirvakili,et al.  Artificial Muscles: Mechanisms, Applications, and Challenges , 2018, Advanced materials.

[52]  K. Kim,et al.  Collectively Exhaustive Electrodes Based on Covalent Organic Framework and Antagonistic Co‐Doping for Electroactive Ionic Artificial Muscles , 2019, Advanced Functional Materials.

[53]  Barbara Mazzolai,et al.  A variable-stiffness tendril-like soft robot based on reversible osmotic actuation , 2019, Nature Communications.

[54]  Guan Wu,et al.  High‐Performance Hierarchical Black‐Phosphorous‐Based Soft Electrochemical Actuators in Bioinspired Applications , 2019, Advanced materials.

[55]  Chem. , 2020, Catalysis from A to Z.