Bending Displace Improvement of Electro-active Paper Using Conductive Polyaniline Coating

Abstract

Bi-layer and tri-layer structures of electro-active paper(EAPap) using conductive polyaniline(PANI) coating were investigated to improve bending displacement of cellulose EAPap. Two different counter ions, perchlorate($CIO_4^-$) and tetrafluoroborate($BF_4^-$), are used as dopant ions in the PANI processing. The actuation performances of hi-layer and tri-layer structure are evaluated in terms of tip displacement, blocked force, strain energy density and power output density. The actuation performance of the tri-layer actuator was better than the hi-layer structure, and the maximum displacement and blocked force of tri-layer $CIO_4^-$ doped-PANI-EAPap were 13.2 mm and 0.15 mN, respectively. Also the power output of the actuator is similar to the required power of biological muscle application.