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Updated: Sep 24, 2025

Fabrication of Carbon-Based Ionic Electromechanically Active Soft Actuators
Published on: April 25, 2020
Gel actuators based on polymeric radicals
Ravindra N Wickramasinhage1, Shailesh K Goswami1, C John McAdam1
1Chemistry Department, University of Otago Dunedin New Zealand smoratti@chemistry.otago.ac.nz.
Abstract:
Low-voltage electrochemical actuation of radical polymer gels has been demonstrated in an organic electrolyte. Polymer gels were prepared by post-modification of active-ester precursor gels with an amine-functionalised radical. A combination of few-layer graphene and multiwall carbon nanotubes gave high conductivity and improved actuation in the gels, with 32% linear actuation. The actuator system showed good stability over at least 10 cycles, showing its promise. The cycle time was several hours due to mass-transport limited transport of ions and solvent into the device.
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