Novel actuators based on polypyrrole/carbide-derived carbon hybrid materials

Polypyrrole (PPy) hybrid films incorporated with porous carbide-derived carbon (CDC) particles are synthesized through a novel one-step electrochemical synthesis process that provides a simple and efficient alternative for current tape-casting and inkjet printing technologies to make conducting polymer–CDC-based electroactive composites. The resulting porous, robust and electrically conductive hybrid layer was used to fabricate electroactive polymer actuators both as perpendicularly expanding actuators and as bending trilayer actuators. Raman and FTIR spectroscopy confirm successful incorporation of CDC in the PPy matrix. Cyclic voltammograms confirm slightly higher charging/discharging currents of the PPyCDC hybrid. This indicates the successful coupling of CDC in order to increase electric double-layer capacitance in the hybrid films. The maximum steady state electromechanical diametrical strain is 13% for hybrid material which is in the same order of magnitude as for PPy and 10× more than previously reported CDC films made with non-conducting polymer binders. Furthermore, the expanding actuators made from hybrid material are more efficient than non-modified PPy actuators, having doubled the amount of swelling per injected charge. This improvement is very important since the low energy efficiency is a major shortcoming for ionic electroactive polymers. The high pseudocapacitance makes these new hybrid materials also interesting for energy storage applications.