Liu Sheng, Liu Yang, Cebeci Hülya, de Villoria Roberto Guzmán, Lin Jun-Hong, Wardle Brian L, Zhang Q M
Department of Electrical Engineering, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 (USA).
Adv Funct Mater. 2010 Oct 8;20(19):3266-3271. doi: 10.1002/adfm.201000570.
Recent advances in fabricating controlled-morphology vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VA-CNTs) with ultrahigh volume fraction create unique opportunities for markedly improving the electromechanical performance of ionic polymer conductor network composite (IPCNC) actuators. Continuous paths through inter-VA-CNT channels allow fast ion transport, and high electrical conduction of the aligned CNTs in the composite electrodes lead to fast device actuation speed (>10% strain/second). One critical issue in developing advanced actuator materials is how to suppress the strain that does not contribute to the actuation (unwanted strain) thereby reducing actuation efficiency. Here our experiments demonstrate that the VA-CNTs give an anisotropic elastic response in the composite electrodes, which suppresses the unwanted strain and markedly enhances the actuation strain (>8% strain under 4 volts). The results reported here suggest pathways for optimizing the electrode morphology in IPCNCs using ultra-high volume fraction VA-CNTs to further enhanced performance.
在制造具有超高体积分数的可控形态垂直排列碳纳米管（VA-CNTs）方面的最新进展，为显著提高离子聚合物导体网络复合材料（IPCNC）致动器的机电性能创造了独特机遇。通过VA-CNTs间通道的连续路径可实现快速离子传输，且复合电极中排列的碳纳米管具有高导电性，从而使器件具有快速的致动速度（>10%应变/秒）。开发先进致动器材料的一个关键问题是如何抑制对致动无贡献的应变（有害应变），从而降低致动效率。在此，我们的实验表明，VA-CNTs在复合电极中呈现各向异性弹性响应，这抑制了有害应变并显著提高了致动应变（4伏电压下>8%应变）。本文报道的结果为利用超高体积分数的VA-CNTs优化IPCNC中的电极形态以进一步提高性能指明了方向。
