Fundamental Study of Application of Piezoelectric Chiral Polymer to Actuator

To realize a new piezoelectric chiral polymer actuator, we studied the motion induced by the shear piezoelectricity of a poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) film under the application of an ac voltage. First, PLLA was subjected to a supercritical CO2 treatment to change its high-order structure, resulting in an improvement in its piezoelectricity. Then, we designed a PLLA film roll transducer, which consisted of a piece of the treated PLLA film rolled into a long thin roll. To demonstrate the transducer, we placed it vertically on a fixed stand. A plastic hemispherical container was placed on the upper end face of the transducer. It was found that the container rotated smoothly in the counterclockwise direction when an ac voltage was applied. We emphasize that no special complex mechanical parts were used in this study.