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Electrochemically Driven Carbon-Based Materials as EAPs: Fundamentals and Device Configurations

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Electromechanically Active Polymers

Part of the book series: Polymers and Polymeric Composites: A Reference Series ((POPOC))

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Abstract

The varieties of different carbon structures offer a great basis for EAPs. They are most widely used electrode materials in low-voltage actuation generation. So far, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have gained unrivaled attention. Their popularity is reflected in a production capacity that presently exceeds several thousand tons per year. In addition to carbon nanotubes, other electrically conductive carbon allotropes that contain electron-rich conjugated double bonds can be also successfully used as actuator electrodes. The following chapter focuses on most common carbon material-based EAPs. More specifically, on graphite which consists of multiple stacked conducting layers of graphene, on porous amorphous carbons, on fullerenes (C60, C70) and on carbon nanotubes (CNT). The porous amorphous carbons will include activated carbons, carbon nanofibers and filaments, carbide-derived conductive carbons synthesized from different precursors, and carbon aerogels. The chapter introduces these carbons as independently standing actuators or as materials for actuator electrodes and presents different approaches toward actuator fabrication. The ability to manipulate the morphology of these carbons, thus tuning the mechanical performance of the actuators, is also discussed. Essential differences in electrochemical, electro(chemo)mechanical properties and overall device configuration of carbon material-based actuators compared to other EAPs will be revealed.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Intelligent Materials and Systems Lab, Institute of Technology, University of Tartu, Nooruse 1, 50411, Tartu, Estonia

    Janno Torop, Anna-Liisa Peikolainen & Alvo Aabloo

  2. Department of Chemistry, Tallinn University of Technology, Akadeemia tee 5, 19086, Tallinn, Estonia

    Mihkel Koel

  3. Inorganic Functional Material Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), 563-8577, Ikeda, Osaka, Japan

    Kinji Asaka

  4. The Alan G. MacDiarmid NanoTech Institute, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, 75083, USA

    Ray H. Baughman

Authors
  1. Janno Torop
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  2. Anna-Liisa Peikolainen
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  3. Alvo Aabloo
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  4. Mihkel Koel
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  5. Kinji Asaka
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  6. Ray H. Baughman
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alvo Aabloo .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School Engineering & Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom

    Federico Carpi

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Torop, J., Peikolainen, AL., Aabloo, A., Koel, M., Asaka, K., Baughman, R.H. (2016). Electrochemically Driven Carbon-Based Materials as EAPs: Fundamentals and Device Configurations. In: Carpi, F. (eds) Electromechanically Active Polymers. Polymers and Polymeric Composites: A Reference Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31530-0_18

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