ARTIFICIAL MUSCLES BASED ON CONDUCTING POLYMERS

A general description of artificial muscles based on the reversible electrochemical oxidation/reduction reactions in conducting polymers and the concomitant reversible change of volume is presented. The construction of bilayers and multilayers of conducting polymer/flexible adherent polymer is presented, The reproducibility of the macroscopic movement was very high using bilayers showing deviations < 5%. When the device was charged with a mass some 20 times the polymer mass, the reproducibility of movements had a higher average deviation of 20%. A bilayer trailing a steel sheet over 180 degrees is shown. Variations of time, energy and power for uncharged and charged films, working under different constant currents are described.