Conducting polymer actuators : temperature effects

In order to utilize conducting polymer actuators as a viable engineering solution, it is necessary to produce usable levels of force with a reasonable bandwidth. Polypyrrole actuated at temperatures as high as 100 °C increases stress magnitudes by as much as 4x and stress rates by 5x. The effect is caused by a combination of decreased solution resistance and increased ion diffusion within the polymer. However, these temperatures cause accelerated degradation due to the time-temperature correlation common to viscoelastic polymers. Actuation at these temperatures can decrease cycle life by as much as 20x. Excessive heating without actuation can also result in poor actuator performance. Impedance spectroscopy coupled with electro-mechanical analysis highlighted previous results and also showed an improved frequency response from actuation at high temperatures.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Del Zio, Michael R. (Michael Robert), 1982-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Ian W. Hunter.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/35656

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/35656