Recent applications of the scanned pipette to materials science problems have included its quantification of the ion flux resulting from conducting polymer actuation. However, in order to correlate this flux with the precise height changes arising from actuation, a separate experiment must be carried out. Herein we propose a new design that may be capable of simultaneously determining both ion flux and topography, on the basis of subtle current density magnitude shifts and precisely chosen experimental positioning parameters. A simulation of the geometrical model - consisting of the pipette, conducting polymer film and electrodes - was setup and solved in 2D axi-symmetrical domain. The ion concentrations, voltage potentials and current densities were determined as a function of time, with three key parameters varied: the maximum ion flux value Jmax, conducting polymer swelling Tp and overall separation distance d between pipette and polymer. It was found that the separation Tp - d should be around 50 to 150 nm, roughly the same as the actuation itself. Furthermore, the current density component arising from geometrical changes due to actuation was on the order of a few percent, and was highly sensitive to Jmax levels.

Date Published: 3 April 2012
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 8340, Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) 2012, 83400I (3 April 2012); doi: 10.1117/12.917565

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8340:
Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) 2012
Yoseph Bar-Cohen, Editor(s)