Carbon nanostructures-based soft electro-ionic artificial muscles (Conference Presentation)

With the advance of soft electronic industry, soft electro-ionic artificial muscles based on electro-active polymer have been actively investigated from the practical viewpoint. However, due to the few drawbacks of the soft electro-ionic artificial muscles, they have not yet been applied to the practical applications until know. Herein, we report soft electro-ionic artificial muscles based on three dimensional graphene-carbon nanotube-nickel nanostructures (G-CNT-Ni). The G-CNT-Ni were blended in both polymeric electrodes and ionic membranes to fabricate a strong and large-bending soft electro-ionic artificial muscle. Importantly, the G-CNT-Ni exhibited remarkable electrochemical reactivity due to the synergistic effects of large specific surface area, three-dimensionally networked structures, and no restacking phenomena. Moreover, reinforcement of the G-CNT-Ni makes significantly improved blocking force and bending actuation of soft electro-ionic artificial muscle. This investigation can opens up a new way to apply soft electro-ionic artificial muscles to practical applications in next-generation electronic devices.