A comparative study of conductive polypyrrole and polyaniline coatings on electro-active papers

A comparative study is performed on the conductive polymer-coated electro-active paper (EAPap) actuators by aiming at improving the overall performance of the actuators. Conductive Polymer coated Electro-active Paper [CP-EAPap] actuators are constructed using electro-deposition of polypyrrole and polyaniline on to cellulose paper. The actuation behavior is tested at different actuation frequency and humidity conditions on bilayer and trilayer types of CP-EAPap actuators. The effect of thickness variation, dopant ions and humidity conditions are compared for both conductive polymer-coated actuators. The trilayer actuators are superior than the bilayer counterparts, and polyaniline coated actuators gives better performance than polypyrrole based ones in terms of bending displacement and ruggedness to humidity. The possible actuation principle is also addressed along with X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscope results.