Electroactive Polymers [EAP] and EAP based actuators

CIMS has been designing a number of electroactive polymers whose properties are changed drastically upon stimuli (pH, electric field, photon, temperature, etc) with aim on using them as a key actuator and sensor material. Most of the EAP's that we have studied are hydrogels, whose shape and/or dimension are changed upon pH, electric field at modest level (1V), and they are polyacrylamide (PAAm) gel, polyacrylonitrile (PAN) gel, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) gel, perfluorinated sufonic (Nafion) gel, and color changeable gels. One of the weakness of hydrogels is its short life in dry air condition, thus, we are developoing a special coating material for the Nafion actuators with an aim of enhancing its life use much longer (several months or more) than the current level (typically several hours). Our major actuation modes are rapid and large axial displacemnt of a pillar shaped actuator and fast color changeable EAP film with several potential applications.

Electroactive Polymers [EAP] | [to view entire pdf file click here]

[1] Electroactive Polymers and Their Applications
[2] Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) Gel
[3] Color and Volume Change of Copoly Aam/vdMG Gel
[4] Color Change of EC Polymer Device based on Au Patterned Countered- Electrode
[5] Application Potential

EAP Based Actuators | [to view entire pdf file click here]

[1] A New Nafion Actuator (part 1)
[2] A New Nafion Actuator (part 2)
[3] Design of Nafion Actuator Array (part 1)
[4] Design of Nafion Actuator Array (part 2)
[5] Application for the Actuator Array