• Composites Research
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.401-407
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• 2016

IPMC is composed of thin ion conductive polymer film sandwiched between metallic electrodes plated on both surfaces. Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite (IPMC) generates voltages when bent by mechanical stimuli. IPMC has a potential for the variety of energy harvesting applications due to its soft and hydrophilic characteristics. However, the large-scale implementation is necessary to increase the output power. In this paper, the scale-up of surface area effect on voltage generation characteristics of IPMC was investigated using IPMC samples with different surface areas. Also, a circuit model simulating both the output voltage and its offset variations was designed for estimating the voltages from IPMC samples. The proposed model simulated the output voltages with offsets well corresponding to various frequencies of input bending motion. However, some samples showed that the increase of error between real and simulated voltages with time due to the nonlinear characteristic of offset variations.

• 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.

• 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.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.463-467
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• 2005

In order to enhance the actuation force of ionic polymer-metal composite (IPMC) made with the acrylic copolymer of fluoroalkyl methacryate, acrylic acie, and 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate(HEMA), the hydroxy group of HEMA was corsslinked with 1,3-diethoxy-1,1,3,3-tetramethyldisiloxane. The water uptake was reduced and the mechanical strengths and the actuation force of the membrane was improved by crosslinking. However, current and deformation responses of IPMC were decreased by crosslinking.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.24-30
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• 2008

The laminate IPMC actuator have been developed with a commercial Nafion film and platinum electrodes. Equivalent beam and equivalent bimorph beam models for IPMC(Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite) actuators are described. By using a beam equation with estimated physical properities and actuation displacements of a cantilevered IPMC actuator are estimated. And Finite element analysis(FEA) was done by ANSYS.

• Composites Research
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.383-388
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• 2015

Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite (IPMC) consisting of soft membrane plated by platinum electrode layers on both surfaces generates electric energy when subjected to various mechanical stimuli. The paper proposes a circuit model that describes the physical composition of IPMC to predict the voltage generation characteristic corresponding to bending motion. The parameter values in the model are identified to minimize the RMS error between the real and simulated outputs. Following the design of IPMC circuit model, the state observer of the model is designed by using pole placement technique which improves the model accuracy. State observer design technique is also applied to find the inverse model which estimates the input bending angles from the output voltage data. The results show that the inverse model estimates input bending angles fairly well enough for the further applications of IPMC not only as an energy harvester but also as a bending sensor.

• Composites Research
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.50-54
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• 2007

The Ionic Polymer Metal Composite (IPMC), an electro-active polymer, has many advantages including bending actuation, low weight, low power consumption, and flexibility. These advantages coincide with the requirements of a bio-related application. Thus, IPMC is promising materials for bio-mimetic actuator and sensor applications. Before applying IPMC to actual application, basic mechanical properties of IPMC should be studied in order to utilize IPMC for practical uses. Therefore, IPMCs are fabricated to investigate the mechanical characteristics. Nafion is used as a base ionic polymer. Mason samples cast with various thicknesses are used to test the thickness effects of IPMC. Subsequently, IPMC is fabricated using the chemical reduction method. The deformation, blocking force and frequency response of the IPMC actuator are important properties. In this present study, the performances of the IPMC actuators, including the deformation, blocking force and natural frequency, are then obtained according to only the input voltage and IPMC dimensions. Finally, the empirical performance model and the equivalent stiffness model of the IPMC actuator are established using experiments results.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.533-539
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• 2013

Recently, Ionic Polymer Metal Composite (IPMC) systems receive great attention in the fields of the medical and biomedical Engineering because of several merits in terms of new actuators and sensors and fuel cell materials. When the voltage is excited to IPMC system, it moves. Conversely, if there are any movement on the IPMC, the IPMC has charge voltage by the internal properties. Therefore the IPMC can be used as a motion sensor or force sensor. In this paper, we identify characteristics of the IPMC and control its movements from remote locations by the smart-phone system based on visual information for monitoring. Additionally, control of movements of the IPMC is realized by transmit motion commands using the smart-phone system with the blue-tooth communication. Unfortunately, there are some deficiencies to perfectly attain physical properties of the IPMC systems from our experiments in this paper. However, in its utilization point of view, we demonstrate that the IPMC has some potentials as new sensors, actuators, and fuel cells.

• 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.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.377-383
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• 2009

Ionic polymer-metal composite (IPMC) actuator generates bending actuation via ion/water flux to the cathode side under an electric field. Polyelectrolytes in IPMC should possess high water-retention capability, proton conductivity, and Young's modulus. In this study. for endowing IPMCs with these properties, Nafion-alumina composite membranes containing $\alpha$- or $\gamma$-aluminas of $4{\sim}8$ wt% were prepared. Mechanical moduli of Nafion-alumina composite membranes were $7{\sim}3$ MPa higher than that of Nafion, with the slight decrease in proton conductivity. At DC 3 V. the actuation performance of the Nafion-$\alpha$-alumina (8 wt%)-IPMC was superior to that of the typical Nafion-IPMC. exhibiting 2.7 times the displacement with an enhanced blocking force. The enhanced actuation performance with the Nafion-$\alpha$-alumina composite membranes was attributed to the higher proton conductivity, the elevated ion/water flux, and the lower interfacial electric resistance of platinum electrodes and membrane, compared with those containing $\gamma$-alumina.