PEDOT coating enhanced electromechanical performances and prolonged stable working time of IPMC actuator

Current ionic exchange polymer metal composite (IPMC) has always been associated with short stable working time due to the presence of severely electrode fatigue and water loss, which limits its wide-spread applications. To address this problem, a facile and effective strategy has been proposed to repair the IPMC by electrografting a conductive, flexible polymer of Poly(ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) on IPMC electrode surface in this study. The investigation of physiochemical properties of PEDOT coating revealed that EDOT molecules could fill into the electrode cracks generated from fatigue and then were polymerized into PEDOT with a linear conjugation structure. The PEDOT-coated electrodes exhibited significantly improved conductivity and effectively reduced water loss. The PEDOT coating can repair the common actuation defects of the used IPMC actuators, such as asymmetrical actuation and torsional deformations. Moreover, the introduction of PEDOT coating apparently improved electromechanical properties by increasing swing angles and displacements, and prolonging the stable working time to more than 1000sec without fatigue.