Fabrication and evaluation of actuators based on polymer electrolyte membranes

Actuators based on hydrocarbon polymer electrolyte membranes having phosphoric acid groups were fabricated to investigate the correlation between the chemical properties and the actuation. The bending size and velocity of actuation were measured and compared with the values for fluorocarbon polymers, Nafion®-based actuators. The actuators were fabricated by coating polymer electrolyte membranes with gold using dichlorophenanthrolinegold (III) chloride. The actuators bent toward the anode when the applied voltage was over 1 kV. Nafion®-based actuators reached the maximum displacement size within 1 s, while the hydrocarbon polymer-based actuators took over 60 s. The difference in the velocity of actuation was caused by the difference in the proton conductivity of polymer electrolyte membranes. The maximum displacement size of hydrocarbon polymer-based actuators was nearly equal to that of Nations-based actuators.