LAUSR

Abstract A soft ionic electroactive polymer actuator does not differ from other types of actuators in the requirement of reliable, controllable and consistent performance. In ionic systems, like those of conducting polymers, the direction of actuation (as well as - naturally - the amplitude) depends on the dominance of one type of ions (cations over anions or vice versa) as the mobile species, maintaining charge neutrality. Here we demonstrate that the same polypyrrole (PPy) films can have rather different response in terms of linear actuation amplitude as well as direction under different voltage ranges. A system designed to mitigate such uncertainties – PPy blended with polymerized ionic liquid – is shown as a comparison. Three reversible and charge-balanced potential ranges in cyclic voltammetry and square wave voltage steps experiments were chosen to demonstrate the importance of selecting the right voltage range, especially if no embedded charges acting as “filters” are being used.