A theoretical and experiment study for self-oscillatory ionic polymer-metal composite actuators

摘要

In our previous work (Kim and Kim 2007 Sensors and Actuators A 137 129; Kim et al 2007 Appl. Phys. Lett. 90 184104) we have reported a novel approach to electrochemically driven ionic polymer-metal composites (IPMCs) that exhibits their self-oscillatory deformation in a cantilever bender configuration. When a constant current was imposed on IPMCs, under certain conditions IPMCs exhibit periodic deformation. In order to better understand such an electro-chemo-mechanical behavior of IPMCs-particularly for self-oscillation-we have developed a multi-physics-based mathematical model, which accounts for electrochemical and electromechanical phenomena, along with surface chemistry, simultaneously. A model study was performed to predict the kinetically driven potential oscillations for electrochemical oxidation of formaldehyde on the Pt-IPMC surface. The physical phenomena of the studied system are described in coupled differential equations. In addition, experiments were conducted to acquire important model parameters. The proposed model was implemented in a MATLAB (http://www.mathworks.com/) platform. Seemingly, the model accurately predicts the self-oscillating and non-linear behavior of IPMCs.