Surface roughening of Nafion membranes using different route planning for IPMCs

In this paper, three different roughening route planning methods (free coarsening, vertical coarsening, circling coarsening) were designed to pre-treat the basement membrane. The platinum IPMC was prepared by electroless plating to observe their surface morphology and test their performances such as output displacement and blocking force. The results show that the platinum electrode of the vertical coarsening route planning of IPMC is distributed in the shape of fish scales and is the most compact and regular on the surface electrode. The thickness of the platinum electrode layer is about 13 μm, the maximum output displacement is 54.89 mm, the blocking force of 15.46 mN, and the maximum strain energy density of the IPMC of 2.44 KJ/m3. Vertical coarsening route planning can significantly improve the electrodynamic properties of IPMC, and it is recommended that the surface roughening of IPMC be utilized in the research and application of IPMC. It lays a certain experimental foundation for the performance improvement and innovation research and development of IPMC in the subsequent stage.