Electroactive Nonionic Polymer Gel-Swift Bending and Crawling Motion
- PDF / 1,451,332 Bytes
- 6 Pages / 417.6 x 639 pts Page_size
- 19 Downloads / 263 Views
*Faculty of Textile Science and Technology, Shinshu University, 3-15-1 Tokida, Ueda-shi 386-8567, Japan, [email protected] ABSTRACT
We have found a nonionic polymer gel swollen with nonionic dielectric solvent can be actuated by applying an electric field. The motion was not only far much faster than conventional polyelectrolyte gel materials, but also far much bigger in deformation. The motion was completed, for instance, within 60 ms and the deformation reached over 100%. The heat loss is negligible compared to that of polyelectrolyte gels. The deformation is not only bending, but also crawling. The principle was suggested to be charge-injected solvent dragging in the gel. The force was suggested to be proportional to the square of the electric field and proportional to the dielectric constant of the solvent. The principle was suggested to be promising and applicable to other conventional polymers. INTRODUCTION
Electroactive polymer actuators have been attracted strong attention as one of the smart materials, particularly, as a possible candidate for an artificial muscle. One of them is polymer gel, which is swollen with solvent[I]. Polymer gels have been considered to possess high potential as an artificial muscle through their soft textures and their largely deforming property. As electroactive polymer gels, polyelectrolyte gels have been extensively investigated since they contain ionic species that are directly affected by the electric field[21. These gels have been pointed out, however, have some difficulties in practical application, such as poor durability, electrochemical consumption on the electrodes. The electrochemical reactions on the electrodes accompany large electric current or heat generation.
On the other hand, nonionic polymer gels swollen with nonionic solvent have hardly been investigated as electroactive polymer materials. Poly(vinyl alcohol) gel swollen with dimethylsulfoxide have been demonstrated to be actuated very efficiently by applying a d.c. electric field[3-4]. The phenomenon was explained as an electrostrictive one, although the detailed mechanism was remained uncertain. In this paper, we present the other features of the electroactive nonionic polymer gel materials. They are swift bending and crawling motions. The motion speed and the magnitude of the deformations are much larger than those reported on polyelectrolyte gel materials. The concept will be suggested to be applicable to the other conventional nonionic polymer materials. EXPERIMENT
Matera Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) was purchased from Kuraray Co. The degree of polymerization and the degree of saponification are 1700 and 98% (in mol), respectively. The residual acetate groups in the PVA were completely saponified with 12N-sodium hydroxide aqueous solution. After the purification, the saponified PVA was used for the gel preparation. 267 Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. Vol. 600 0 2000 Materials Research Society
Poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) (degree of polymerization = 1100) was purified by reprecipitation using tetr
Data Loading...
