Ionic polymer-metal composites (IPMCs) form an important category of electroactive polymers. In this paper, a nonlinear, physics-based model is proposed for IPMC actuators. A key component in the proposed model is the nonlinear capacitance of IPMC, demonstrated by the nonlinear relationship between an applied step voltage and the induced charge. A nonlinear partial differential equation (PDE) is fully considered in analytical derivation of the capacitance of IPMC. The nonlinear capacitance is incorporated into a circuit model, which includes additionally the pseudo capacitance, the ion diffusion resistance, and the nonlinear DC resistance of the polymer. The model is verified in experiments.

Date Published: 6 April 2009
PDF: 12 pages
Proc. SPIE 7287, Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) 2009, 728715 (6 April 2009); doi: 10.1117/12.815792

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7287:
Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) 2009
Yoseph Bar-Cohen; Thomas Wallmersperger, Editor(s)