Superior performance of a vapor grown carbon fiber polymer actuator containing ruthenium oxide over a single-walled carbon nanotube

Abstract

The electrochemical and electromechanical properties of poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) actuators developed using a vapor grown carbon fiber (VGCF)–ionic liquid (IL) gel electrode containing ruthenium oxide (RuO2), formed without using ultrasonication, were compared with only-VGCF and only-single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) based actuators. The double-layer capacitance of the VGCF electrode containing RuO2 was larger than that of the only-VGCF electrode. The VGCF polymer actuator containing RuO2 formed without using ultrasonication surpassed the performance of the only-VGCF and only-SWCNT actuators in terms of the strain. Both VGCFs and RuO2 were required to produce a large strain actuator that surpassed the performance of the only-SWCNT polymer actuator.