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

离子聚合物-金属复合材料（IPMCs）在低电压偏压下表现出高变形。该项目的目的是开发一种可以集成到不同软聚合物设备中的ipmc打印的新途径。使用可被气溶胶喷射打印成微尺度结构的Nafion悬浮液（及相关材料），以及基于金属纳米粒子的电轨道，将探索这种IPMC弯曲功能的缩放。用ipmc -纳米颗粒混合物制造纳米复合材料将允许调整电荷传输和膨胀，这是软机器人弯曲功能的核心。目标装置包括电压开关的蛇形重复插入物，能够自己导航进入组织（如软耳蜗植入物）。其他器件是电压控制的卷卷光学超材料器件，以及低成本的可调谐微腔，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.