Metallurgical Engineering

Metallurgical Engineering

Experimental Study of the Effect of Electroplating Temperature and Time in Manufacturing of Smart Material of Ionic Polymer-Metal Composites (IPMC)

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
Mehran Razaghi
Bahman Mirzakhani
Mahdi Raufi
Abstract
In recent years, Ionic Polymer Metal Composites (IPMC) have been extensively used in various industries. They are new generation of smart materials for fabrication of actuators. IPMC is a layered polymer-metal composite with high technology processing. The objective of this project is production and processing of Polypyrrole - gold - Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) composite. The porous PVDF membranes were first sputtered with gold as a conductive layer. The solution of propylene carbonate, pyrrole and lithium triflouromethane sulfonamide salt employed as electrolyte for electroplating of poly pyrrole on gold layer in controlled condition. The composite layers and the influences of temperature, current and time of electroplating electrolyte concentration and the thickness of gold layer on characteristics of IPMC were investigated with SEM and FTIR analysis. The results indicated that with increase of the thickness of gold layer and electroplating duration the thickness of polypyrrole layer increases in 0.1 molar concentration of pyrrole and lithium triflouromethane sulfonamide salt temperature of -25 °C.
Keywords
Electro active polymers
Ionic polymer–metal composite (IPMC)
Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)
gold coating
Polypyrrole
1. H. S. Tzou, h. J. Lee, Smart Materials, (2004), Precision Sensor/Actuators, Smart Structures, and Structronic Systems, Mechanics of Advanced Materials and Structurs, 367-393.
2. Y.Bar-Cohen, Jet Propulsion Lab, California Institute of Technology, Biomimetic Actuators using Electroactive Polymers (EAP) as Artificial Muscles.
3. Y.Bar-Cohen, (2001)..Electroactive Polymer (EAP) Actuators as Artificial Muscles-Reality,Potential and Challenges, SPIE Press,Vol.PM98.
4. Yoseph Bar-Cohen. (2006). Biomimetics Biologically Inspired Technologies. Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JP) California Institute of Technology Pasadena, California, USA. Published by CRC Press.
5. Mohsen Shahinpoor and Kwan Kim. (2005). Ionic polymer–metal composites: IV.Industrial and Medical Applications, Smart Mater. Struct. 14, 197–214.
6. Gaoyi Han, Gaoquan Shi. (2004). Conducting Polymer Electrochemical Actuator Made Of High-Strength Three-Layered Composite Films of Polythiophene and Polypyrrole. Sensors and Actuators B 99, 525–531.
7. Y. Wu, G. Alici, G.M. Spinks, G.G. Wallace.  (2006). Fast Trilayer Polypyrrole Bending Actuators for High Speed Applications. Synthetic Metals 156, 1017–1022.
8. Gursel Alici and Nam N. Huynh. (2007). Performance Quantification of Conducting Polymer Actuators for Real Applications: A Micro Gripping System. IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, vol. 12, no. 1.
9. Eisazadeh, Hossein. (2007). Studying the Characteristics of Polypyrrole and its Composites." World Journal of Chemistry 2.2, 67-74.
10. Babita Gaihrea, Gursel Alici, Geoffrey M. Spinksa, Julie M. Cairney. (2011). Synthesis and Performance Evaluation of Thin Film PPY-PVDF Multilayer Electroactive Polymer Actuators. Sensors and Actuators A 165, 321–328.

  • Receive Date 21 March 2014