77 results about "Ionic polymer–metal composites" patented technology

Ionic polymer–metal composites (IPMCs) are synthetic composite nanomaterials that display artificial muscle behavior under an applied voltage or electric field. IPMCs are composed of an ionic polymer like Nafion or Flemion whose surfaces are chemically plated or physically coated with conductors such as platinum or gold. Under an applied voltage (1–5 V for typical 10mmx40mmx0.2mm samples), ion migration and redistribution due to the imposed voltage across a strip of IPMCs result in a bending deformation. If the plated electrodes are arranged in a non-symmetric configuration, the imposed voltage can induce all kinds of deformations such as twisting, rolling, torsioning, turning,twirling, whirling and non-symmetric bending deformation. Alternatively, if such deformations are physically applied to an IPMC strips they generate an output voltage signal (few millivolts for typical small samples) as sensors and energy harvesters. IPMCs are a type of electroactive polymer. They work very well in a liquid environment as well as in air. They have a force density of about 40 in a cantilever configuration, meaning that they can generate a tip force of almost 40 times their own weight in a cantilever mode. IPMCs in actuation,sensing and energy harvesting have a very broad bandwidth to kilo HZ and higher. IPMCs were first introduced in 1998 by Shahinpoor, Bar-Cohen, Xue, Simpson and Smith (see references below) but the original idea of ionic polymer actuators and sensors goes back to 1992-93 by Adolf, Shahinpoor, Segalman, Witkowski, Osada, Okuzaki, Hori, Doi, Matsumoto, Hirose, Oguro, Takenaka, Asaka and Kawami as depicted below...