Dual sensing and actuation of ultrathin conducting polymer transducers
Résumé
Conducting polymers are active materials that exhibit an interesting bidirectional electromechanical coupling, where an input voltage results in the displacement of the film and a voltage is produced when a displacement is applied to the film. Mechanical deformation of the transducer by external mechanical loads causes movement of ions, and the generation of voltages. In this work, a dual sensing and actuation model for conducting polymer is described. The model comprises an RC lumped circuit, representing the electrochemical model, a mechanical model described by a dynamic Euler – Bernoulli beam theory, and an empirical strain-to-charge ratio. All three submodels are presented in a self-consistent Bond Graph formalism. The predictions of this model are then demonstrated by comparing with the experimental sensing and actuation results of a 17 µm thin poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) – based trilayer transducer, showing that the complete electromechanical model elucidates an effective approach to describe both sensing and actuation.