Sensing and Self-Sensing Actuation Methods for Ionic Polymer–Metal Composite (IPMC): A Review

Abstract

Ionic polymer–metal composites (IPMC) are smart material transducers that bend in response to low-voltage stimuli and generate voltage in response to bending. IPMCs are mechanically compliant, simple in construction, and easy to cut into desired shape. This allows the designing of novel sensing and actuation systems, e.g., for soft and bio-inspired robotics. IPMC sensing can be implemented in multiple ways, resulting in significantly different sensing characteristics. This paper will review the methods and research efforts to use IPMCs as deformation sensors. We will address efforts to model the IPMC sensing phenomenon, and implementation and characteristics of different IPMC sensing methods. Proposed sensing methods are divided into active sensing, passive sensing, and self-sensing actuation (SSA), whereas the active sensing methods measure one of IPMC-generated voltage, charge, or current; passive methods measure variations in IPMC impedances, or use it in capacitive sensor element circuit, and SSA methods implement simultaneous sensing and actuation on the same IPMC sample. Frequency ranges for reliable sensing vary among the methods, and no single method has been demonstrated to be effective for sensing in the full spectrum of IPMC actuation capabilities, i.e., from DC to ∼100 Hz. However, this limitation can be overcome by combining several sensing methods.

Progress of low-frequency sound absorption research utilizing intelligent materials and acoustic metamaterials

“…through inner structural evolvement or mass transport, extensively explored in interdisciplinary areas such as biomedicine, bionanotechnology, and drug delivery. 31,38,[79][80][81] According to the type of stimuli, they can be broadly classied as electro-active polymers (EAPs), magnetically sensitive materials, piezoelectric materials, light-driven/humidity-driven intelligent materials, 82,83 and shape memory materials. 34,78,84 It should be noted that those classications are not orthometric, because various alternatives can respond to multiple stimuli and therefore belong to more than one of the above-mentioned categories.…”

“…31 A wide variety of intelligent materials, including electroactive polymers, 32 piezoelectric materials, shape-memory materials, 33 and magnetically sensitive materials, 34,35 have been probed extensively in various applications such as so robots, articial muscles, actuators, sensors, and biomedicine due to their inherent advantages like high sensitivity, large displacement, and biocompatibility. [36][37][38][39][40] The manipulation of physical properties by adjusting external stimuli attracted increasing attention to the investigation of intelligent materials in tunable acoustic structures. 2 Furthermore, the application of intelligent materials can also introduce new energy dissipation mechanisms for acoustic structures, which accelerate the decay of sound energy and allow effective broadband sound absorption in the low-frequency band.…”

An Ionic Polymer Metal Composite (IPMC)-Driven Linear Peristaltic Microfluidic Pump

“…Hence, it is particularly beneficial to introduce smart material actuators as driving mechanisms in micro-pumps [11]. Electromechanical smart material actuators can directly transduce electrical energy to mechanical without the need of bulky ancillary components [12]. They are simple in construction, light-weight and compliant, allowing the realization of simple, light, damage-tolerant structures [13].…”

Surface roughening of Nafion membranes using different route planning for IPMCs

“…With the rapid development of science and technology, the demand for intelligent and miniaturized materials is increasing gradually, the performance of intelligent materials has CONTACT Dongsheng Zhang zds@xjtu.edu.cn School of Mechanical Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China a higher requirement. Since the introduction of smart materials in the 1980s, to the present fourth generation of materials, smart materials have gradually become the development object of key cutting-edge new materials technology [1]. Ionic polymermetal composite (IPMC), as one of the new smart polymer materials, with the characteristics of low voltage and large deformation, has been widely concerned [2,3], and have been applied in artificial muscles, bionic robots, aerospace equipment, bioengineering, flexible mechanical brakes, medical instruments, and other fields [4][5][6].…”