ARTIFICIAL MUSCLES BASED ON CONDUCTING POLYMERS

A general description of artificial muscles based on the reversible el ectrochemical oxidation/reduction reactions in conducting polymers and the concomitant reversible change of volume is presented. The constru ction of bilayers and multilayers of conducting polymer/flexible adher ent polymer is presented, The reproducibility of the macroscopic movem ent was very high using bilayers showing deviations < 5%. When the dev ice was charged with a mass some 20 times the polymer mass, the reprod ucibility of movements had a higher average deviation of 20%. A bilaye r trailing a steel sheet over 180 degrees is shown. Variations of time , energy and power for uncharged and charged films, working under diff erent constant currents are described.