High-performance ionic polymer–metal composite actuators fabricated with microneedle roughening

In this paper, microneedle roller roughening (MNRR) was proposed as a direct, convenient and cost-effective roughening method for an ionic polymer–metal composite (IPMC). On this basis, we regulated the sequence of the fabrication procedure, roughening the membrane after the first impregnation process to form a deep needle-like penetrated electrode, and subsequently obtained an IPMC with large deformation at both low and high frequencies. The results showed that the specific capacitance and tip displacement could reach five times and four times, respectively, compared with the results for fabrication using the traditional process sequence. In addition, the effects of the load and rolling cycles were also investigated to find the optimal roughening level. This new reported fabrication process provides a direct means of producing a concise and deep interface and may be further explored for batch production of IPMC actuators. (paper)