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Carbon Nanotubes: High Electromechanical Response of Ionic Polymer Actuators with Controlled‐Morphology Aligned Carbon Nanotube/Nafion Nanocomposite Electrodes (Adv. Funct. Mater. 19/2010)
Author(s) -
Liu Sheng,
Liu Yang,
Cebeci Hülya,
de Villoria Roberto Guzmán,
Lin JunHong,
Wardle Brian L.,
Zhang Q. M.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
advanced functional materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.069
H-Index - 322
eISSN - 1616-3028
pISSN - 1616-301X
DOI - 10.1002/adfm.201090083
Subject(s) - materials science , carbon nanotube , nanocomposite , electrode , nafion , composite number , volume fraction , composite material , nanotechnology , actuator , electrical conductor , electroactive polymers , polymer , electrochemistry , electrical engineering , chemistry , engineering
Recent advances in fabricating controlled‐morphology vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VA‐CNTs) with ultrahigh volume fraction create unique opportunities for markedly improving the electromechanical performance of ionic polymer conductor network composite (IPCNC) actuators. Continuous paths through inter‐VA‐CNT channels allow fast ion transport, and high electrical conduction of the aligned CNTs in the composite electrodes lead to fast device actuation speed (>10% strain/second). One critical issue in developing advanced actuator materials is how to suppress the strain that does not contribute to the actuation (unwanted strain) thereby reducing actuation efficiency. Here, experiments demonstrate that the VA‐CNTs give an anisotropic elastic response in the composite electrodes, which suppresses the unwanted strain and markedly enhances the actuation strain (>8% strain under 4 V). The results reported here suggest pathways for optimizing the electrode morphology in IPCNCs using ultrahigh volume fraction VA‐CNTs to further enhanced performance.