The unimorph actuator of the LaNi 5 thin film deposited on polyimide substrates can be expected as a sensor and/or a controller of hydrogen gas flux in various hydrogen-related devices, since controlling the hydrogen concentration in the film by pressure change drives this actuator reversibility. In this study, the effect of the palladium deposition was investigated on the mechanical response of this thin film actuator. It was shown that the initiating time (incubation period) for the actuation to be measured after hydrogen gas exposure was reduced from 100 to 1 s by the palladium deposition. This significantly improvement of the mechanical response was attributed to the change in the rate determining steps: the dissociation of hydrogen gas molecules on the sample surface for the sample without palladium deposition, and hydrogen diffusion in the LaNi 5 film for the palladium deposited sample. It was also suggested that the high permeability of hydrogen in palladium film at room temperature resulted in the high responsiveness.
In order to generate the soft bending motion driven by pressure change in hydrogen gas, a soft device was made up and tested. In former research, a unimorph structure was proposed, in which a silicone rubber with LaNi 5 alloy powder distributed was piled up on a pure silicone rubber sheet. Using this structure we succeeded a bending motion of the soft device by applying hydrogen gas pressure. However the mechanical response was slow. To improve the active motion, a catalyst of Pd-Al 2 O 3 powder was mixed into the hydrogen storage alloy powder in the rubber. By simple addition of catalyst powder before dispersion into the rubber, we obtained drastically modified responses and displacement in the movement of the device. The catalyst probably accelerated dissociation of hydrogen molecule on the surface of hydrogen storage material particle.
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