Smart carboxymethyl cellulose/polythiophene hydrogel for electrically driven soft actuators: Physical and thermal properties and electroactive performances

Abstract Novel electroactive hydrogels were fabricated from carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) biopolymer incorporated with conductive polythiophene (PTh). The PTh particles dispersed uniformly in the CMC matrix providing higher mechanical properties and thermal stability. The formulation CMC/PTh6 (6%wt PTh) gave the highest tensile strength and elongation at break (0.9456 ± 0.0017 MPa and 123.0398 ± 7.0606%, respectively). The bending response of the hydrogels under an applied electric field was studied in terms of bending angle and bending sensitivity. Under an electric field strength of 100 V mm −1 , CMC/PTh10 (10%wt PTh) showed the highest bending angle (52.245 ± 6.054°) while neat CMC gave the lowest bending angle (33.753 ± 8.116°). The bending behavior upon the application of an electric field of the CMC/PTh hydrogels occurs from the polarization of Na + and H + in the CMC matrix and S + in PTh.