Work behaviors in cation driven conducting polymer soft actuators

Work behaviours of soft actuators based on conducting polymer, polypyrrole (PPy) were studied as the function of tensile loads. The PPy actuator was operated in aqueous electrolyte of NaCl showing contraction and expansion by oxidation and reduction, respectively. The actuator lifted suspended load weights during contraction. It was found that the contractive strain of 1% was kept almost constant with increasing tensile loads up to 5 MPa or until the breakdown. The contractive stroke increased under heavy loads, and was discussed taking the uniaxial deformation and training effect into consideration. The conversion energy efficiency was estimated to be 0.05%.