• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.723-726
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• 2005

The two major obstacles in the application of IPMC to flapping actuators operated in the air are solvent loss and actuation force. In this paper, solvent loss of various IPMCs made of Nafion$^{TM}$117(183$\mu$m thickness) has been experimentally investigated to find out the best combination of cation and solvent for minimal solvent loss in IPMCs and higher actuation force. For this purpose. experiments for the internal solvent loss measurement of IMPCs have been conducted for various combinations of cation and solvent. From the experiments, it was found that heavy water showed improvement in the operating time up to more than two minutes. in the tip force measurement of IPMCs, it was found that smaller and thicker IPMCs produced larger tip forces. However, the shorter IPMCs generated reduced actuation displacements and created flapping motion with decreased natural frequency. For the design of flapping device actuated by 5mm wide, 10mm long, 0.2mm thick IPMCs were used in the stacked form. Since the actuation force is a few gram-force, we stacked five IPMCs to improve actuation force. To amply the actuation force, rack-and-pin ion type hinge was used for the flapping device and insect (Cicadidae) wing was attached to the stacked IPMC actuator. In the flapping test, the device could generate flapping angle of 15$^{\circ}$ at 6Hz excitation by 2.5 voltage square wave input.

• 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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• 2008.11a
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• pp.372-373
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• 2008

The snap-through phenomena of the curved IPMC actuators were investigated according to the initial curvature of the actuators. The curved actuators were fabricated by long time thermal treatments. Cantilevered IPMCs have a constant curvature and their initial tip-displacements are 0, 8, and 16mm, respectively. These actuators were tested in terms of f response. AC response, FRF test for evaluating the effect of initial shape. The hysteresis and instant speed of tip point were measured for observation of the snap-through. Present results show that initial deformation strongly affects the snap-through phenomena, resulting in much larger tip-displacements.

• 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.

• 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.