• 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.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.39-48
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• 2003

The Ionic Polymer Metal Composite (IPMC) is one of the electroactive polymer (EAP) have potential application as micro actuators. In this study, IPMC is used as actuator to control of the direction for the endscopic microcapsule. Because it bends in water and wet conditions by applying a low voltage (1∼3 V) to its surfaces. The basic characteristics and the static modeling of IPMC are discussed. Also the dynamic modeling is performed using the Lagrange' equation. Computer simulation results show that the performed modeling guarantee similarity of actual system.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.527-532
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• 2005

Ionic polymer metal composites (IPMC) are soft polymeric smart materials having large displacement at low voltage in air and water. The polymeric electrolyte actuator consists of a thin and porous membrane and metal electrodes plated on both faces, in impregnation electro-plating method. The response and actuation of actuator are governed. Among many factors governing the activation and response of IPMC actuator, the surface electrode plays an important role. In this study, the well-designed modification of electrode surface was carried out in order to improve the chemical stability well as electromechanical characteristics of the IPMC actuator. We employed Ion Beam Assisted Deposition (IBAD) method to prepare the topologically homogeneous thin surface electrode. After roughing the surface of Nafion membrane in order to get a larger surface area, the IPMC was prepared by impregnation for electro-plating and re- coating on the surface through traditional chemical deposition, followed by an additional surface treatment with high conductive metals with IBAD. It was observed that our IPMC specimen shows the enhanced surface electrical properties as well as the improved actuation and response characteristics under applied electric field.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.302-307
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• 2007

In this paper, a flap valve micropump with an ionic polymer-metal composite (IPMC) actuator was designed, fabricated, and experimentally characterized. A multilayered IPMC based on Nafion/layered silicate and Nafion/silica nanocomposites was fabricated for the actuation section of the micropump. The IPMC diaphragm, a key element of the mircopump, was designed so that the IPMC actuator was supported by a flexible polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) structure at its perimeter. This design feature enabled a significantly high displacement of the IPMC diaphragm. The overall size of the micropump is $20{\times}20{\times}5$ ${mm}^3$. Water flow rates of up to 760 ${\mu}l$/min and a maximum backpressure of 1.5 kPa were recorded. A significant advantage of the proposed micropump is its low driven voltage from only 1-3 V. In addition, a simple and effective design, and an ease of manufacturing are other advantages of the present micropump.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.24 no.12
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• pp.36-41
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• 2007

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.131-136
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• 2011

Many researchers are recently studying about Electroactive polymer(EAP). But it has a physical limitation, because of property of material. Carbon nanotube(CNT) is known as the promising material which has excellent electro-mechanical characteristics and is mostly defect-free. It is expected that a successful synthesis of CNT and Nafion known as a primary material for IPMC would make a great improvement on its electro-mechanic feature. This study focuses on the method of synthesis of CNT with Nafion which improves electro-mechanical characteristic. To come up with mechanical dispersion with Nafion and Isopropyl Alcohol(IPA), we dispersed Single-walled carbon nanotubes(SWCNTs). For a uniformly layer of CNT, we used a spray gun on a hot plate by a simplified method. We fabricated a disperse SWCNT/Nafion composite uniformly. Through the use of the E-beam evaporator to form an uniform electrode layer, we consummated the IPMC actuator. This result shows improving 1.5 times mechanical properties about driving force in IPMC.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.386.1-386.1
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• 2014

The ionic polymer-metal composite (IPMC), a type of electro-active polymer material, has received enormous interest in various fields such as robotics, medical sensors, artificial muscles because it has many advantages of flexibility, light weight, high displacement, and low voltage activation, compare to traditional mechanical actuators. Mostly noble metal materials such as gold or platinum were used to form the electrode of an IPMC by using electroless plating process. Furthermore, carbon-based materials, which are carbon nanotube (CNT) and reduced graphene-CNT composite, were used to alter the electrode of IPMC. To form the electrode of IPMC, we employ the synthesized graphene on copper foil by chemical vapor deposition method and use the transfer process by using a support of PET/silicone film. The properties of graphene were evaluated by Raman spectroscopy, UV/Vis spectroscopy, and 4-point probe. The structure and surface of IPMC were analyzed via field emission scanning electron microscope. The fabricated IPMC performance such as displacement and operating frequency was measured in underwater.

• International Journal of Control, Automation, and Systems
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• v.4 no.6
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• pp.748-755
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• 2006

In this paper, a trade-off design and fabrication of IPMC(Ionic Polymer Metal Composites) as an actuator for a flapping device have been described. Experiments for the internal solvent loss of IPMCs have been conducted for various combinations of cation and solvent in order to find out the best combination of cation and solvent for minimal solvent loss and higher actuation force. From the experiments, it was found that IPMCs with heavy water as their solvent could operate longer. Relations between length/thickness and tip force of IPMCs were also quantitatively identified for the actuator design from the tip force measurement of 200, 400, 640, and $800{\mu}m$ thick IPMCs. All IPMCs thicker than $200{\mu}m$ were processed by casting $Nafion^{TM}$ solution. The shorter and thicker IPMCs tended to generate higher actuation force but lower actuation displacement. To improve surface conductivity and to minimize solvent evaporation due to electrically heated electrodes, gold was sputtered on both surfaces of the cast IPMCs by the Physical Vapor Deposition(PVD) process. For amplification of a short IPMC's small actuation displacement to a large flapping motion, a rack-and-pinion type hinge was used in the flapping device. An insect wing was attached to the IPMC flapping mechanism for its flapping test. In this test, the wing flapping device using the $800{\mu}m$ thick IPMC. could create around $10^{\circ}{\sim}85^{\circ}$ flapping angles and $0.5{\sim}15Hz$ flapping frequencies by applying $3{\sim|}4V$.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.51 no.9
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• pp.455-463
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• 2002

Ionic Polymer metal composite(IPMC), one of new actuation materials of EAPs is fabricated by electroless plating of platinum on both sides of the perfluorosulfonic acid film or Nafion film and its electromechanical characteristics are investigated. The IPMC strip bends towards anode under electrical field. As the number of plating cycle increases, the distance between plated platinum electrodes on both sides of Nafion membrane decreases and also the displacement is almost inversely proportional to the number of plating. The displacement of IPMC strip depends on voltage magnitude and applied signal frequency and its maximum deformation is observed at a critical frequency, resonant frequency. Low pressure sandblasting is used for surface treatment of Nafion membrane and at 8 times of plating cycle produced actuator with high displacement performance. For more efficiency of fabricated IPMC, it is useful to add one or two surface developing step which is the second reduction process using hydrazine.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.356-359
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• 2005

Ionic-polymer-metal-composite(IPMC), one of new actuation materials of electroactive polymers plated with noble metallic electrodes is known for the fast bending upon electric field. The IPMC strip bends towards anode under electrical field. It has many merits of low driving voltage, quick responsiveness, high durability, possibility of miniaturizability. In this paper, we studied for developing the large deflection of IPMC according several fabricating parameters. We measured the large deflection by the different process of sandpaper and sandblasting in surface treatment, the initial compositing process and the surface electroding process, and the different counter ions in ion exchanging process. In fundamental, the displacement of IPMC strip depends on voltage magnitude and applied signal frequency and its maximum deformation is observed at a critical frequency, resonant frequency.