Prepration and Characterization of Novel Ionoic Polymers to be Used as Artificial Muscles

The muscle-like technology would be of enormous advantages for biomedicalapplications such as medical implants and human assist devices. ionic polymer metalcomposites (ipmcs) are one kind of biornimetic actuators. an ionic polymer metalcomposite composed from an ionomer with high ion exchange capacity that packedbetween two thin metal layers. in the present study we focused on the preparationof a novel alternative polymeric ionomer to be used as artificial muscles. sulfonatedpoly(ether ether ketone) (peek) have been synthesized as a new class of ionomericmembrane materials. peek was sulfonated at various degrees with sulfuric acid andn,n-dimethylacetamide as a solvent. fourier transfer infrared spectroscopyconfirmed the quality of substitution reaction. sulfonated samples showed o-hvibration at 3490 and s=o peaks at 1085 and 1100-1300 crrr '. by increasing degreeof sulfonation to 80%, ion exchange capacity, water uptake and the number of watermolecules per the fixed sulfone groups (a) were increased to about 2.4 meq.gl, 75%and 19, respectively. after calculating the optimum degree of sulfonation, theapplications of these ionomers as actuators are studied. rigid microstructure of peekbackbone causes to slow displacement. however, this inflexible backbone showedthe acceptable tip force during its actuation. these ipmc are easy to prepare andmuch less expensive than the commercial per-fluorinated membranes such asnation. the results approve the utilization of sulfonated aromatic for artificialmuscles applications as novel strong muscles with low flexibility.