초록 |
On purpose to develop high-performance polymer actuators, we fabricated novel Nafion/sulfonated polysilsesquioxane hybrid nanocomposite by using in-situ sol-gel process of 3-trihydroxysilyl-1-propanesulfonic acid. Sulfonated inorganic networking into Nafion provided significant improvement of ionomeric morphology in hybrid membrane, which consequently enabled the membrane to exhibit much higher ionic conductivity. Although much increased ionic content and water swelling, bending stiffness of the membrane was improved due to the synergistic effect of reinforcement via incorporated inorganic phase as well as introduction of interpenetrating network in hybrid construction. The as-prepared actuators assembled with the membrane exhibited greatly enhanced performance in all terms of displacement, speed, force, durability, and electromechanical efficiency. The hybrid ionomers described here will be quite beneficial for development of polymeric artificial muscle and biomimetic transducer. |