Effect of aligned cellulose film to the performance of electro-active paper actuator

This study focused on investigating the effect of aligned cellulose fibers to the performance of EAPap actuator. Among the several factors affecting the performance of EAPap, influence of material orientation in the chemical and physical processing would be crucial for cellulose film. A well-known electrospinning method was employed to improve material orientation of EAPap. LiCl/DMAc cellulose solution, which cotton pulp was dissolved in lithium chloride (LiCl) and N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc) solvent, was used for the fabrication of electrospinning cellulose film. The electrospun cellulose film was spincoated to fill internal pores and stretched up to 10% strain by wet drawn process. SEM images were provided to show aligned cellulose film obtained by the proposed electrospinning and wet drawn stretching method. XRD patterns showed that samples fabricated by electrospinning and stretching method enhanced both crystal structure and crystallinity of cellulose film, which are associated with the improvement of piezoelectricity of EAPap. Induced in-plane strain of electrospun EAPap was proportional to the applied voltage and larger than that of spincast EAPap. An attempt to align cellulose fibers by electrospinning is a useful method for improving the performance of EAPap actuator.