• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
• /
• v.51 no.12
• /
• pp.601-607
• /
• 2002

IPMC(Ionic Polymer Metal Composite)actuators were optimized for producing improved forces by changing multiple parameters including repetition of number of plating, surface electroding and additive(PVP)-treatment on reduction. The platinum electrode is deposited on the surface of the material where platinum particle stay in a dense form that appears to introduce a significant level of surface electrode resistance. Actuation tests were performed for such IPMC actuators under a low voltage. The test results show that the lower surface-electrode resistance generates higher actuation capability in the IPMC actuators. In order to investigate relaxation behavior of bending and repeatability in dry condition, the IPMC was coated by$rubber(KRATON^{TM})$to minimize the effect of water evaporation from IPMC. This actuator can be used in air with surface coating to avoid membrane drying.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.49 no.6
• /
• pp.758-763
• /
• 2011

In this work, polymer composite electrolytes were prepared by a blend of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) as a polymer matrix, propylene carbonate as a plasticizer, $LiClO_4$ as a salt, and by containing a different content of $TiO_2$, by using the solution casting method. The crystallinity and ionic conductivity of the polymer electrolytes was evaluated using X-ray diffraction(XRD) and AC impedance method, respectively. The morphology of composite electrolyte film was analyzed by SEM method. From the experimental results, by increasing the $TiO_2$ content, crystallinity of PEO was reduced, and ionic conductivity was increased. In particular, the ionic conductivity was dependent on the content of $TiO_2$ and showed the highest value 15 wt%. However, when $TiO_2$ content exceeds 15 wt%, the ionic conductivity was decreased. According to the surface morphology, the ionic conductivity was decreased because the polymer composite electrolytes showed a heterogenous morphology of fillers due to immiscibility or aggregation of the filler within the polymer matrix.

• Composites Research
• /
• v.29 no.6
• /
• pp.401-407
• /
• 2016

IPMC is composed of thin ion conductive polymer film sandwiched between metallic electrodes plated on both surfaces. Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite (IPMC) generates voltages when bent by mechanical stimuli. IPMC has a potential for the variety of energy harvesting applications due to its soft and hydrophilic characteristics. However, the large-scale implementation is necessary to increase the output power. In this paper, the scale-up of surface area effect on voltage generation characteristics of IPMC was investigated using IPMC samples with different surface areas. Also, a circuit model simulating both the output voltage and its offset variations was designed for estimating the voltages from IPMC samples. The proposed model simulated the output voltages with offsets well corresponding to various frequencies of input bending motion. However, some samples showed that the increase of error between real and simulated voltages with time due to the nonlinear characteristic of offset variations.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.6 no.3
• /
• pp.211-223
• /
• 2010

Accurate sensing of mechanical strains in civil structures is critical for optimizing structure reliability and lifetime. For instance, combined with intelligent control systems, electromechanical sensor output feedback has the potential to be employed for nondestructive damage evaluation. Application of Ionic Polymer Transducers (IPTs) represents a relatively new sensing approach with more than an order of magnitude higher sensitivity than traditional piezoelectric sensors. The primary reason this sensor has not been widely used to date is an inadequate understanding of the physics responsible for IPT sensing. This paper presents models and experiments defending the hypothesis of a streaming potential sensing mechanism.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2009.11a
• /
• pp.350-354
• /
• 2009

In this work, polymer - inorganic composites have prepared using polymer such as polyethylene glycol (PEG)/poly (methyl methacrylate, PMMA) and inorganic nanofillers materials such as TiO2 nanotubes (TiNTs)/carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The extensive structural, morphological and ionic properties revealed that the high surface area and tubular feature of nanofillers improved the interaction and cross-linking to polymer matrix which is significantly enhanced the ionic conductivity and electrical properties of composite electrolytes. Comparably high conversion efficiency ~4.5% has been observed by using the newly prepared PEG-TiNTs composite solid electrolyte as compared with PMMA-CNTs electrolyte based DSSCs (~3%). The detailed comparative properties would be discussed in term of their structural, morphology, ionic and photovoltaic properties.

• Polymer(Korea)
• /
• v.36 no.4
• /
• pp.434-439
• /
• 2012

To improve the performance of ionic polymer-metal composite (IPMC) actuators, Nafion films sandwiched with Nafion/conducting nanoparticulate electrospun webs were used as polymer electrolytes of IPMC. Multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWNT) and silver were the conducting nanoparticulates and the nanoparticles dispersed in a Nafion solution were electrospun. IPMCs with the Nafion/conducting nanoparticulate electrospun webs displayed improved displacements, response rates, and blocking forces. MWNT was superior to silver in terms of displacement and blocking force, and the webs without the conducting fillers also caused enhanced performances compared with the conventional IPMCs. These improvements were attributed to an elevated electrolyte flux through highly porous interlayers and capacitance induced by well dispersed conducting fillers, and low interfacial resistance between electrolyte and electrodes.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
• /
• v.28 no.11
• /
• pp.1242-1250
• /
• 2011

Several biomimetic artificial muscles including the electro-active synthetic polymers (SSEBS, PSMI/PVDF, SPEEK/PVDF, SPSE, XSPSE, PVA/SPTES and SPEI), bio-polymers (Bacterial Cellulose and Cellulose Acetate) and nano-composite (SSEBS-CNF, SSEBS-$C_{60}$, Nafion-$C_{60}$ and PHF-SPEI) actuators are introduced in this paper. Also, some applications of the developed biomimetic actuators are explained including biomimetic robots and biomedical active devices. Present results show that the developed electro-active polymer actuators with high-performance bending actuation can be promising smart materials applicable to diverse applications.

• Composites Research
• /
• v.28 no.6
• /
• pp.383-388
• /
• 2015

Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite (IPMC) consisting of soft membrane plated by platinum electrode layers on both surfaces generates electric energy when subjected to various mechanical stimuli. The paper proposes a circuit model that describes the physical composition of IPMC to predict the voltage generation characteristic corresponding to bending motion. The parameter values in the model are identified to minimize the RMS error between the real and simulated outputs. Following the design of IPMC circuit model, the state observer of the model is designed by using pole placement technique which improves the model accuracy. State observer design technique is also applied to find the inverse model which estimates the input bending angles from the output voltage data. The results show that the inverse model estimates input bending angles fairly well enough for the further applications of IPMC not only as an energy harvester but also as a bending sensor.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2009.06a
• /
• pp.282-285
• /
• 2009

This study presents preparation and characterization of composite membranes based on ionic liquids. The ionic liquids act as water in sulfonated membranes. On the behalf of ionic conduction through ionic liquid inside the membranes, non-aqueous membranes showed Arrenhius dependence on temperature with no external humidification. It was implied that hopping mechanism of proton was dominant in the ionic liquid based membranes. In addition, small angle X-ray (SAXS) studies provided the information on morphology of ionic clusters formed by the interaction between sulfonic acid groups of the polymers and ionic liquids. The SAXS spectra showed matrix peaks, ionomer peaks and Prodo's law for Nafion based composite membranes and only matrix peaks for hydrocarbon based ones. However, ionic conductivity and atomic force microscopy (AFM) images showed the clear formation of ionic clusters of the hydrocarbon based composite membranes. It implies for ionic liquid based high temperature membranes that it is important to use sulfonated polymers as solid matrix of ionic liquid which can form clear ionic clusters in SAXS spectra.

• Polymer(Korea)
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.380-384
• /
• 2005

Fluoroalkyl methacrylate and acrylic acid were bulk radical copolymerized in the presence of pure sodium montmorillonite or macromer intercalated sodium montmorilonite to get a fluorinated acrylic ionomer/sodium montmorillonite composite, and their physical properties, such as X-ray diffraction pattern, tensile properties, and water uptake, were examined. These composites were used to preparean ionic acrylic polymer-platinum composite (IPMC). The current and deformation responses of these IPMCs by external voltage applied across the platinum electrodes deposited on both sides of IPMC showed that the cation migration from anode to cathode was suppressed in the presence of sodium montmorillonite, causing reduced current and deformation.