Preparation and experimental investigation of thermo-electro-mechanical behavior of Ag-IPMC actuator

Traditional ionic polymer metal composites (IPMCs) composed of Nafion as the base polymer and mostly precious metal platinum/gold as the surface electrode. The proposed work deal with fabrication and investigation of thermo-electromechanical properties of artificial muscles i.e. ionic polymer-metal composites of non-precious metal silver (Ag) as surface electrode. Chemical decomposition method is followed and in-depth fabrication procedures are outlined. The microscopic and morphological analyses show dense packed silver (Ag) particles on the surface of the Nafion membrane. Several experiments are carried out such as bending test for measuring tip force and surface resistance. Dynamic-mechanical analysis (DMA) and thermo-mechanical analysis (TMA) are performed to evaluate the viscoelastic properties and performance of the actuator. The developed pure Ag-IPMC is inexpensive, exhibits superior performance and can be used as artificial muscle materials.