This book covers the fundamental properties, modeling, and demonstration of Electroactive polymers in robotic applications. It particularly details artificial muscles and sensors. In addition, the book discusses the properties and uses in robotics applications of ionic polymer–metal composite actuators and dielectric elastomers.

Electroactive polymers have been the object of increasing academic and industrial interest and in the past ten to fifteen years substantial progress has been achieved in the development and the characterization of this important new class of conducting materials. These materials are usually classified in two large groups, according to the mode of their electric transport. One group includes polymers having transport almost exclusively of the ionic type and they are often called 'polymer electrolytes' or, in a broader way, 'polymer ionics'. The other group includes polymeric materials where the transport mechanism is mainly electronic in nature and which are commonly termed 'conducting polymers'. Ionically conducting polymers or polymer ionics may be typically described as polar macromolecular solids in which one or more of a wide range of salts has been dissolved. The most classic example is the combina tion of poly(ethylene oxide), PEO, and lithium salts, LiX. These PEO-LiX polymer ionics were first described and proposed for applications just over ten years ago. The practical relevance of these new materials was im mediately recognized and in the course of a few years the field expanded tremendously with the involvement of many academic and industrial lab oratories. Following this diversified research activity, the ionic transport mechanism in polymer ionics was soon established and this has led to the development of new host polymers of various types, new salts and advanced polymer architectures which have enabled room temperature conductivity to be raised by several orders of magnitude.

Covers the field of EAP with attention to all aspects and full infrastructure, including the available materials, analytical models, processing techniques, and characterization methods. This second edition covers advances in EAP in electric EAP, electroactive polymer gels, ionomeric polymer-metal composites, and carbon nanotube actuators.

The book focuses on the development of high performance, high efficiency electroactive polymers (EAPs), and electromechanically active polymers by controlling molecular chemical structure and morphology for all applications. This book is ideal for academicians and researchers in polymer and materials science.

From the authors' preface: "As we enter the era of intelligent materials and embark upon a new approach to material design, synthesis, and system integration, certain groups of materials will emerge as champions." Standing high among these champions are conductive electroactive polymers (CEPs), which appear destined to play a central ro

Electroactive polymers are smart materials that can undergo size or shape structural deformations in the presence of an electrical field. These lightweight polymeric materials possess properties such as flexibility, cost-effectiveness, rapid response time, easy controllability (especially physical to electrical), and low power consumption. Electroactive Polymeric Materials examines the history, progress, synthesis, and characterization of electroactive polymers and then details their application and potential in fields including biomedical science, environmental remediation, renewable energy, robotics, sensors and textiles. Highlighting the flexibility, lightweight, cost-effective, rapid response time, easy controllability, and low power consumption characteristics of electroactive polymers, respected authors in the field explore their use in sensors, actuators, MEMS, biomedical apparatus, energy storage, packaging, textiles, and corrosion protection to provide readers with a powerhouse of a reference to use for their own endeavors. Features: Explores the most recent advances in all categories of ionic/electroactive polymer composite materials Includes basic science, addresses novel topics, and covers multifunctional applications in one resource Suitable for newcomers, academicians, scientists and R&D industrial experts working in polymer technologies .

In the last decade, much progress has been made in these materials. This book presents a highly coherent coverage of supramolecular, photosensitive and electroactive materials, namely those that have been extensively investigated for applications in fields of electronic and photonic technologies. This extensive reference provides broad coverage of on different types of materials, their processing, spectroscopic characterization, physical properties and device applications.The implications reach from molecular recognition in synthetic and natural complexes to exciting new applications in chemical technologies, materials, nanostructures, functional materials, new generation catalysts, signal transducers, medical and biomedical applications and novel separation techniques. All these applications rely on supramolecular properties such as molecular recognition, molecular information, and tailored molecular assemblies.This book is aimed to present a highly coherent coverage of supramolecular, photosenstive and electroactive materials and their applications in electronic and photonic technologies. The research behind these materials constitute some of the most actively pursued fields of science.Key Features* Covers supramolecular photosensitive and electroactive materials* Provides recent developments on metallophthalocyanines and polydiacetylenes* Include various types of supramolecular materials, their processing, fabrication, physical properties and device applications* Role of polyimides in microelectronic and tribology* Describes Photosynthetic and respiratory proteins, Dendrimers* A very special topic presented in a timely manner and in a format