Polymer actuator driven by ion current at low voltage, applied to catheter system

There is considerable present interest in developing mechanochemical materials which use the swelling of ion exchange membranes technologies suitable for the construction of electromechanical actuators of very small dimensions. Both sides of a film of perfluorocarboxylic acid were chemically plated with gold. A pulse voltage of 2.0 V between the gold electrodes on the polymer ribbon gave a quick bend 90 degree angle, 8 mm displacement toward the anode side of the ribbon in water. The displacement performance of this composite is five times larger than that of Nafion-Pt composite. This report describes in detail the remarkably large bending motion polymer-micro-actuator using perfluorocarboxylic acid film and gold plate composite.