Development of an all-polymer, axial force electrochemical actuator

In this work we describe the design and development of an all-polymer electromechanical actuator with dissimilar conducting polymer anode and cathode in contact with a solid ion source — sink of a water based polyacrylamide hydrogel. This allows contraction of one film during oxidation and the other during reduction, and the expansion of both when the polarity is reversed. This gives a stable, free-standing device able to generate forces along its length in air under the application of a potential difference of about 1.5 V between the films.