Electro-chemo-mechanical characteristics of fullerene-reinforced ionic polymer-metal composite transducers

Abstract

In this paper, the effects of fullerene as a reinforcing agent in Nafion-based ionic polymer-metal composite transducers were investigated in view of the electro-chemo-mechanical characteristics including sensing capabilities, specific electro-mechanical energy efficiency and blocking forces. Substantial variation in the crystallinity of fullerene-Nafion membranes even with the addition of low concentrations was observed in the x-ray diffraction data. The flower-like fullerene agglomerations observed in the scanning electron microscope images of the direct mixing samples between fullerenes and Nafion disappeared in the present solvent recasting method and good dispersions of fullerenes in the Nafion matrix were observed in the atomic force microscopy images. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy in conjunction with its complementary x-ray photon spectroscopy showed strong electrostatic and chemical interactions between fullerenes and sulfonated moieties of Nafion. Present results show that the 0.5 wt% fullerene-reinforced ionic polymer-metal composite transducer shows nearly three times the blocking force, twice the tip displacement, three times the sensed voltage and three times the electro-mechanical energy efficiency in comparison with a pure Nafion-based IPMC transducer.