Electrochemical properties and actuation mechanisms of actuators using carbon nanotube-ionic liquid gel

In this study, we investigated the dependence of anionic species of ionic liquid (IL) on electrochemical properties and actuation mechanism of the actuator using the carbon nanotube-ILs gel electrode. 1-Ethyl-3-methylimidazolium (EMI+) was selected as a cation for ILs. As a result, DCA ([N(CN)2]−) anion performed much better as an actuator using polymer-supported bucky-gel electrode containing internal IL. In low frequencies, the generated strain of polymer-supported bucky-gel electrode of the actuator depended on the size of anion of IL. It, which was the small van der Waals volumes of IL anions (BF4− and [N(CN)2]−), was considered to be large for the usual bending mechanism and the charge injection, in addition, for other bending mechanism of the intercalation/deintercalation into the diameter of the single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) and into the SWNT bundles. In addition to that, we compared the actuator using polymer-supported bucky-gel electrode to the actuator using non-polymer-supported bucky-gel electrode. As a result, the generated strain of polymer-supported bucky-gel electrode of the actuator was considered to be attributed to the volume-change for polymer-IL gel of the cathode and that of the anode.