Design, fabrication and characterization of polypyrrole trilayer actuators

Conducting polymers are currently studied as artificial muscle materials. They are used instead of traditional actuators because they mimic the movements of animal muscles. They can generate larger active stresses than real muscles as well as generate small strains which can be amplified to cause larger motions. Traditionally, conductive polymers are immersed in liquid electrolytes. Utilizing a trilayer configuration by sandwiching the ions between two strips of polypyrrole films can be actuated in air. This thesis compares two methods of constructing polypyrrole trilayers: an electrolyte gel method and a gold coated PVDF membrane method. It will discuss the construction processes as well as properties of resulting trilayers by looking at force production, strain rate, etc.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Ho, Wei Hsuan (Wei Hsuan Jessie)

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/1721.1/45850

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/45850