Palladium buffer-layered high performance ionic polymer–metal composites

A new IPMC fabrication method—that is not a repetitive reduction processes—and a new supporting electrode material that is responsible for this procedure are described in this paper. A palladium metal, acting as a buffer layer, was deposited before plating the platinum electrode in order to articulate the surface morphology and the interfacial effect between the electrode and the membrane. The platinum layer was sequentially grown using an electroless chemical deposition on a palladium buffer layer on the polymer membrane. The surface morphology and conductivity of the electrode were enhanced by depositing a buffer layer. Under the same applied voltage, when compared to IPMCs without a buffer layer, the IPMCs with a palladium buffer layer showed a greater bending tendency and had a higher blocking force. The results also indicated that such IPMCs do not exhibit the back relaxation phenomenon under a sustained DC voltage. The amplitude of the transduction signal produced by the Pt/Pd IPMC shows much larger amplitude of the signal produced by the Pt IPMC. Thus, the IPMC with a palladium buffer layer has the potential for future applications as an actuator and transducer.