Single-walled carbon nanotube/polyaniline coated cellulose based electro-active paper (EAPap) as hybrid actuator

Cellulose based electro-active paper (EAPap) has been discovered as an attractive EAP material for artificial muscles due to its advantages in terms of light weight, biodegradability, low cost, large displacement output, low actuation voltage and low power consumption. However, EAPap exhibits low force output and frequency band. To enhance EAPap actuators, a hybrid EAPap actuator is developed by coating a composite of single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT)/polyaniline (PANi) with different dopants (Cl^- and ClO ₄^-). SWNT is dispersed in 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP), and the SWNT suspension is mixed and sonicated with dopants. The resulting solution is coated on both sides of EAPap by spin coating. The actuation performance of hybrid EAPap actuators is tested in terms of bending displacement, blocked force, mechanical power output and electrical power consumption. The hybrid EAPap actuators show improved force and resonance frequency as a result of enhanced stiffness of the actuators. Although the displacement output is a little bit decreased, the required electrical field strength and the electrical power consumption are low, which are promising for achieving ultra-lightweight smart actuators.