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）已被证明在低电压偏压下具有高变形。该项目的目的是开发一种新的IPMC印刷路线，可以集成到不同的软聚合物设备中。使用可以被气溶胶喷射打印成微米级配置的Nafion（和相关材料）的悬浮液，以及基于金属纳米颗粒的电轨道，将探索这种IPMC弯曲功能的缩放。用IPMC-纳米颗粒混合物创建纳米复合材料将允许调整电荷传输和溶胀，这是软机器人中驱动弯曲功能的核心。目标器械包括电压开关蛇形爬行插入物，能够将自身导航到组织中（例如软耳蜗植入物）。其他设备是电压控制的卷起光学超材料设备，以及低成本的可调微腔，能够作为CCD探测器上的像素化滤波器，用于优化高光谱成像。

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.