Page 357 - Flexible Robotics in Medicine

CHAPTER 15

Electromechanical characterization

of magnetic responsive and conductive

soft polymer actuators

A.W. Gan 1,2 , Kirthika Senthil Kumar 1,2 , Lei Zhang 1,2 ,
2
Jianyong Ouyang and Hongliang Ren 1
1 2
Department of Biomedical Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Department of
Materials Science & Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Two different types of soft actuators magnetic actuator and electroactive polymer (EAP)
actuator are fabricated by using poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate
(PEDOT:PSS) as a conductive electrode. Magnetic actuators were fabricated through drop-
casting of PEDOT:PSS and Fe 3 O 4 . Similarly, the EAP actuators were fabricated with ionic
liquid/PVDF film sandwiched by two PEDOT:PSS film electrodes. In the magnetic
actuator, the conductivity of the actuator decreases from 2160.0 to 1833.7 S/cm, as the ratio
of PEDOT:PSS to Fe 3 O 4 increases from 1:1 to 1:5. Meanwhile, the saturation
magnetization increases, as the ratio increases from 1:1 to 1:5. For the EAP actuator, the
PEDOT:PSS/xylitol films with a conductivity of 73.5 S/cm are employed for the electrical
actuation. Overall, these actuators have the potential to be used in biomedical applications
as soft actuators.

15.1 Introduction

Multifunctional material films with distinctive properties such as conductive, magnetic, and
dielectric have varied and significant applications by synergetic combination. Among them,
actuators consisting of multifunctional films responsive to various working principles are
identified with the potential to be suitable for essential applications in many areas such as
energy storage, surgical manipulation, tissue engineering, and biomedical engineering. In
comparison to hard actuators, soft actuators that are biocompatible and flexible are often
more suitable for biomedical applications, especially if used in vivo. To fabricate the soft
and flexible actuators, functional polymers can be utilized for their elasticity,
biocompatibility, and conductivity. As polymers possess the ability to undergo dimensional

Flexible Robotics in Medicine.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-817595-8.00016-X 349
© 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.