The research is focused on lifetime and degradation of ionic electroactive polymer actuators (IEAP). The lifetime measurements were carried out using identical methodology upon the different IEAP types. The experiment conducted with large number of samples shows that two types of degradation have serious effect to the IEAPs: degradation during operation and spontaneous self-degradation. Additionally, two ways of occasional damage decrease their overall reliability. In the scope of the current paper we describe degradation of two different types of IEAP actuators: with carbonaceous electrodes and with conducting polymer electrodes. Nevertheless, the common evolutionary trends, rather than the comparative data analysis or formal statistics of all particular samples, are given. Analyzing the electromechanical and electrical impedances of the samples during their whole lifetime, we have found that observing the electric current gives adequate information about the degradation level of any IEAP actuator. Moreover, tracking this electrically measurable parameter enables detecting the occasional damage of an actuator.

Date Published: 1 April 2015
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 9430, Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) 2015, 94300S (1 April 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2084201

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9430:
Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) 2015
Yoseph Bar-Cohen, Editor(s)