Manufacture and characterization of ionic polymer transducers employing non-precious metal electrodes

A co-reduction process is developed for plating ionic polymer materials with precious and non-precious metal electrodes. The purpose is to develop a process that reduces the use of expensive precious metals such as platinum and gold in the development of ionic polymer transducers. Previous results obtained by Bennett and Leo (2001 12th Int. Conf. on Adaptive Structures and Technologies pp 208–19) have demonstrated that oxidation is the key issue associated with the use of non-precious metal electrodes. The present work overcomes this problem through the use of a co-reduction process in which an alloy of platinum and copper is deposited in an impregnation/reduction process. A thin (∼50 nm) layer of gold is then deposited to increase the surface conductivity of the electrode. Actuators developed using this process are tested for longevity for approximately 250 000 cycles. The results demonstrate the stability of the electrode, although multiple tests reveal that variations in the process produce variations in the electrode stability. The transducers made in this study are also quantified in terms of their electromechanical coupling. Results demonstrate that their performance is comparable to those of ionic polymer materials made using other methods and to other types of smart material.