Printed functional ionic polymer-metal nanocomposites for large-scale optics and biomedical implants

离子聚合物-金属复合材料(IPMC)在低电压下表现出高的变形。该项目的目的是开发一种新的打印IPMC的方法，可以集成到不同的软聚合物设备中。使用Nafion悬浮液(和相关材料)，可以喷雾打印成微型结构，以及基于金属纳米颗粒的电子轨道，将探索这种IPMC弯曲功能的规模。用IPMC-纳米颗粒混合物创建纳米复合材料将允许调节电荷传输和膨胀，这是驱动软机器人弯曲功能的核心。目标设备包括能够自动导航进入组织的电压开关蛇形插入件(例如软性耳蜗体)。其他设备是电压控制的卷筒式光学超材料设备，以及低成本的可调谐微腔，能够充当CCD探测器上的像素化滤光器，以优化高光谱成像。

Ionic polymer-metal composites (IPMCs) have been shown to demonstrate high deformations under low voltage bias. The aim of the project here is to develop a new route to the printing of IPMCs which can be integrated into different soft-polymer devices. Using suspensions of Nafion (and related materials) which can be aerosol-jet printed into microscale configurations, as well as metal nanoparticle-based electrical tracks, the scaling of such IPMC bending functionality will be explored. Creating nanocomposites with IPMC-nanoparticle blends will allow tuning the charge transport and swelling which is at the heart driving bending functionalities in soft robotics. Target devices include voltage-switched snake-like reptating inserts capable of navigating themselves into tissues (such as soft cochlea implants). Other devices are voltage-controlled roll-up optical metamaterial devices, as well as low-cost tuneable microcavities capable of acting as pixelated filters on CCD detectors for optimised hyperspectral imaging.