Experimental Study of the Effect of Electroplating Temperature and Time in Manufacturing of Smart Material of Ionic Polymer-Metal Composites (IPMC)

In recent years, Ionic Polymer Metal Composites (IPMC) have been extensively used in various industries. They are new generation of smart materials for fabrication of actuators. IPMC is a layered polymer-metal composite with high technology processing. The objective of this project is production and processing of Polypyrrole - gold - Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) composite. The porous PVDF membranes were first sputtered with gold as a conductive layer. The solution of propylene carbonate, pyrrole and lithium triflouromethane sulfonamide salt employed as electrolyte for electroplating of poly pyrrole on gold layer in controlled condition. The composite layers and the influences of temperature, current and time of electroplating electrolyte concentration and the thickness of gold layer on characteristics of IPMC were investigated with SEM and FTIR analysis. The results indicated that with increase of the thickness of gold layer and electroplating duration the thickness of polypyrrole layer increases in 0.1 molar concentration of pyrrole and lithium triflouromethane sulfonamide salt temperature of -25 °C.