• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.718-721
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• 2007

The ionic-polymer-metal-composite actuators have the best merit for bio-mimetic locomotion because of their large bending performance. Especially, they have the advantage for mimicking a fish-like motion because IPMCs are useful to be actuated in water. So we have developed IPMC actuators with multiple electrodes for realization of biomimetic motion. This actuator is fabricated by combining electroless plating and electroplating techniques capable of patterning precisely and controlling a thickness of Pt electrode layer. The FRF analysis was conducted by a mechanical shaker and direct electrical excitation which is based on sweep sine wave function. From this result, the proper young‘s modulus of Platinum was investigated and applied on expecting the vibration characteristics of patterned IPMC actuator. The calculated maximum displacement of the patterned IPMC was 2.32mm under an applied 4mN/mm. The natural frequency was increased however displacement was decreased in according to increase a thickness of Pt.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.119-123
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• 2006

The ionic-polymer-metal-composite actuators have the best merit for bio-mimetic locomotion because of their large bending performance. Especially, they have the advantage for mimicking a fish-like motion because IPMCs are useful to be actuated in water. So we have developed IPMC actuators with multiple electrodes for realization of biomimetic motion. Generally, the IPMC actuator has been fabricated in electroless plating technique, while it needs very long fabrication time and shows poor repeatability in the actuation performance owing to the variables in chemical fabrication process. Therefore, the novel fabrication methods were investigated by combining electroless plating and electroplating techniques capable of patterning precisely. On the whole, two different methods were compared and analyzed with similar thickness level of Platinum electrodes. Present results show that mixing chemical reduction and electroplating can be a promising candidate for electrode patterning.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.144-151
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• 2003

IPMC(Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite) is promising candidate material for bio-related actuators mainly due to its biocompatibility and wet and soft properties. The widely used commercialized Nafion film has a few kinds of fixed thicknesses but more various film thicknesses are required for extensive applications. Especially for the enhanced force as an actuator, the thick film is essential. Various Nafion films with thickness of 0.4-1.2mm have been prepared by casting of liquid Nafion. Also, IPMC actuators using casted Nafion films have been fabricated and the basic mechanical properties such as stiffness, displacement and force were measured and analyzed. These results can be used for the optimized design of actuators for different applications.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.10 no.11
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• pp.981-990
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• 2004

Specialized propulsors for naval applications have numerous opportunities in terms of research, design and fabrication of an appropriate propulsor. One of the most important components of any propulsor is the actuator that provides the mode of locomotion. Ionomeric electro-active polymer may offer an attractive solution for locomotion of small propulsors. A common ionomeric electro-active polymer, ionic Polymer-Metal Composites (IPHCs) give large true bending deformations under low driving voltages, operate in aqueous environments, are capable of transduction and are relatively well understood. IPMC fabrication and operation are presented to further elucidate the use of the material for a propulsor. Various materials, including IPMCs, are investigated and a simplified propulsor model is explored.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.51 no.12
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• pp.601-607
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• 2002

IPMC(Ionic Polymer Metal Composite)actuators were optimized for producing improved forces by changing multiple parameters including repetition of number of plating, surface electroding and additive(PVP)-treatment on reduction. The platinum electrode is deposited on the surface of the material where platinum particle stay in a dense form that appears to introduce a significant level of surface electrode resistance. Actuation tests were performed for such IPMC actuators under a low voltage. The test results show that the lower surface-electrode resistance generates higher actuation capability in the IPMC actuators. In order to investigate relaxation behavior of bending and repeatability in dry condition, the IPMC was coated by$rubber(KRATON^{TM})$to minimize the effect of water evaporation from IPMC. This actuator can be used in air with surface coating to avoid membrane drying.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.1558-1562
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• 2008

Ionic polymer metal composite (IPMC), one of Electro- Active Polymer (EAP) actuators, has great attention due to the low-voltage driven, large deformation and its potential for artificial muscles. In this paper, we firstly review fish swimming modes using various propulsion mechanisms. Based on study on the swimming mechanisms, we develop an underwater robot actuator which mimics fanning motion of webfoot form. It consists of four actuators fabricated by using IPMC and PDMS which mimics Bio-inspired motion Experiments using a prototype show that the webfooted IPMC actuator generates large deformation and propulsion.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.1521-1526
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• 2008

IPMC(Ionic Polymer-Metal Comosite) exhibits large deformation, having great attention in many application fields. It generates bending moment by ion exchange polymer film. It can be quickly bended by the applied voltage across the plated electrode of the polymer film. In the present paper, we derive the theoretical modeling and dynamic analysis of bending motions of IPMC actuators using the Euler-Bernoulli beam theory. The theoretical model of a cantilever IPMC actuator estimates the moment produced by the applied voltage. The dynamic characteristics, including natural frequencies and frequency response, are calculated by the theoretical model, and they are compared with the experimental results and finite element analysis. It is shown that the mathematical modeling allows precise estimation to the voltage-driven motion of the cantilever IPMC in air.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.30-37
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• 2020

Polymer/inorganic composites were used as a protective layer of lihitum metal electrode for effective suppression of lithium dendrite. PVDF-HFP was used as an polymer material and TiO₂ nanoparticle was used as an inorganic material. PVDF-HFP is a highly flexible polymer that acts as a matrix of inorganic materials while TiO₂ nanoparticle improves the mechanical strength and ion conductivity of the protective layer. The as-synthesized protective hybrid membrane exhibited good dispersion of TiO₂ in the PVDF-HFP matrix by SEM, AFM and XRD analyses. Furthermore, the electrochemical analysis showed that the polymer-inorganic composite retained high coulombic efficiency of 80% and low overpotential, less than 20 mV until the 100^th cycles due to the improved mechanical properties and ion conductivity in comparison to the control sample (untreated and PVDF-HFP polymers/Cu).

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2008.04a
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• pp.294-298
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• 2008

The ionic polymer-metal composite actuators with selectively grown multiple electrodes were developed to mimic the swimming locomotion of a fish. The developed method is based on combining electroplating with the electroless chemical reduction using the patterned mask. The advantages of this fabrication method are that the initial compositing between the polymer and platinum particles can be assured by the chemical reduction method, and the thickness of each electrode can be controlled easily and rapidly by electroplating. By using the fabricated actuator with a multiple degree of freedom, the oscillatory wave of the flexible membrane actuator was generated and a twisting motion was also realized to verify the possibility of mimicking the fish-like locomotion. The frequency response function was analyzed to investigate the natural frequency and the damping factor by a mechanical shaker and direct electrical excitation through the swept-sine method. Present results show that this novel method can be a promising technique to easily pattern each of multiple electrodes and to implement the biomimetic motion of the polymer actuators with good mechanical bending performance.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.52 no.7
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• pp.298-304
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• 2003

IPMC(Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite) is a highly sensitive actuator that shows a large deformation in presence of low applied voltage. Generally, IPMC can be fabricated by electroless plating of platinum on both sides of a Nafion (perfluorosulfonic acid) film. When a commercial Nafion film is used as a base structure of the IPMC membrane, the micro-pump structure and the IPMC membrane are fabricated separately and then later assembled, which makes the fabrication inefficient. Therefore, fabrication of an IPMC membrane and the micro-pump structure on a single wafer without the need of assembly have been developed. The silicon wafer was partially etched to hold liquid Nafion to be casted and a 60-${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ thick IPMC membrane was realized. IPMC membranes with various size were fabricated by casting and they showed 4-2${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ displacements from $4mm{\times}4mm$ , $6mm{\times}6mm$, $8mm{\times}8mm$ membranes at the applied voltage ranging from 2Vp-p to 5Vp-p at 0.5Hz. The displacement of the fabricated IPMC membranes is fairly proportional to the membrane area and the applied voltage.