Electrochemical Actuator Devices Based on Polyaniline Yarns and Ionic Liquid Electrolytes

We report the development of conducting polymer electrochemical linear actuators from ionic liquids (as electrolytes) and polyaniline yarns and hollow fibres (as electrode materials). With a yarn-in-fibre configuration, these actuators were simple to fabricate and allowed two-electrode operation without a reference electrode. Typical electromechanical actuation behavior of expansion, with force decrease, and contraction, with force increase, during charge injection and removal has been realized for these actuators. Stress generation of these actuators was 0.42–0.85 MPa, which exceeds that of skeletal muscle (0.1–0.5 MPa). Practical application of these actuators has been successfully demonstrated by using the electrochemical actuation of a yarn-in-fibre actuator to drive a cantilever object. Importantly, this yarn-in-fibre configuration would allow the combination of an appropriate number of yarns as the actuation electrode to accomplish the mechanical task, depending on the weight of the object.