• 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.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.4 no.5
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• pp.549-563
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• 2008

The ability of an electroactive polymer, IPMC (Ionic Polymer Metal Composites,) to produce electric charge under mechanical deformations may be exploited for the development of next generation of energy harvesters. Two different electrode types (gold and platinum) were employed for the experiments. The sample was tested under dynamic conditions, produced through programmed shaking. In order to evaluate the potential of IPMC for dry condition, these samples were treated with ionic liquid. Three modes of mechanical deformations (bending, tension and shear) were analyzed. Experimental results clearly indicate that IPMCs are attractive applicants for energy harvesting, with inherent advantages like flexibility, low cost, negligible maintenance and virtually infinite longevity. Besides, preliminary energy harvesting model of IPMC has been formulated based upon the work of previous investigators (Newbury 2002, Newbury and Leo 2002, Lee, et al. 2005, Konyo, et al. 2004) and the simulation results reciprocate experimental results within acceptable error.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.586-590
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• 2006

As one of electro active polymers for soft smart materials, the ionic polymer metal composites (IPMC) are easy to produce through chemical reduction processing and show high displacements at low voltage. When the IPMC actuates, the deformation depends on a few factors including the structure of based membrane, species and morphology of the metal electrodes, the nature of cations and the level of hydration. As previously published, we have been studying on improvement of actuation through surface electrode modification of IPMC to grasp the effect of electrode morphology on actuation. This study is comparative experiments through the chemical reaction and deposition by ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD) in order to prepare the very thin and homogeneous surface electrode of IPMC. The IPMCs were prepared with different surface roughness of polymer membrane, and the influence of the surface roughness on the actuation was studied. By investigating the electrical properties and driving displacement, the actuating properties of IPMC with different surface roughness were studied.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.829-833
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• 2007

IPMC-EMIM (Ionic Polyer Metal Composites + 1-ethyl-3- methyl imidazolium trifluromethane sulfonate, EMIM-Tfo) is fabricated by substituting ionic liquid for water in Nafion film, which improves water sensitiveness of IPMC and guarantees uniform performance regardless of the surrounding environment. In this paper, we will introduce the design and analysis of AF Lens Actuator using IPMC-EMIM. We will briefly introduce the procedure of fabrication of IPMC-EMIM first, and proceed on to define the necessary variables, analyze performance by changing the value of the variables, make a designed AF Lens Actuator, and measure the performance of one of them.

• 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.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.471-477
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• 2006

Ion exchange metal composite(IPMC) has toughness equivalent to the range of human's muscle, transformation-actuation force by relatively low voltage and the fast response time. Thus, as a new method for preparing thicker IPMC, the solution casting method to make the films of various thicknesses out of liquid nation was attempted in this study. To reduce the surface resistance of electrode, the first plated electrode prepared by Oguro method was replated with Au and Ir using ion beam assisted deposition(IBAD). The microstructures of electrode surfaces before and after IBAD plating were investigated using SEM. The change of water and ion-conductivity in IPMC were measured under applied voltage. The displacement and driving force of IPMCs with various thicknesses were measured to evaluate the driving properties.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2013.05a
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• pp.1217-1218
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• 2013