Study On The Application Of Activated Carbon And Polyaniline In Electro - Actuating Membrane

Due to its advantages of low actuation voltage, simple actuation way andlightweight, the electroactive polymer (EAP) promised to be applied in many ifelds,ranging from biomedical engineering to artificial muscles. Finding out the suitablefunction mateiral for the electrode of EAP is one of the key-point to improve theactuation performance of these EAPs. This thesis mainly focuses on using activatedcarbon and polyaniline for the preparation of EAPs. It mainly included the followingparts:1.Study on the preparation of electric actuator using activated carbon and microwavetreated activated carbonIn this study, the electric actuators with different amounts of activated carbonloading were prepared by a simple wet-process coating and thermal pressuretreatment. The interface capacitance and displacement of as-prepared electricactuators were evaluated by electrochemical cyclic voltammetry and in situ laserdisplacement sensor, respectively. Results showed that the actuation performance wassignificantly affected by the amount of loaded activated carbon. With the increase ofcarbon loading, the actuation performance enhanced.In order to further improve the performance of activated carbon based electricactuator. The activated carbon was treated under microwave with different irradiationtime. The effect of the microwave irradiation time on the morphology and surfacearea of the activated carbon was studied by SEM and BET. Results showed thatmicrowave treatment will first increase the surface area of the activated carbon andthen decrease its surface area. The actuation performance of actuator using microwavetreated activated carbon showed the same tendency.2.The improved electronic performance by using polyaniline-activated carbonco-coated electric actuator.Polyaniline (PAn) modified on active carbon membrane was prepared by in-situoxidation of aniline monomer (An), in the presence of ammonium persulfate (APS)acts as an oxidant. The thickness of coated polyaniline layer was simply controlled by changing the reaction time. The membranes were characterized by scanning electronmicroscope (SEM) and Raman spectra. Results showed that the displacement ofPolyaniline coated activated carbon based electronic actuator was2times higher thanthat of activated carbon based electronic actuator.