Preparation and properties of nanofibrous Nafion mats for ionic polymer metal composites

Abstract One of the disadvantages of ionic liquids-saturated ionomeric polymer transducers has been known to be their slower speeds of actuation. In this study, a novel membrane structure of nanofibrous mats-based on a copolymer of polytetrafluoroethylene and fluorinated vinyl ether sulfonate (Nafion™) was proposed. The Nafion™ nanofibrous mats were prepared using the electro-spinning process, and their morphology, ionic conductivity and actuating behavior were compared with the conventional film type of Nafion™ membranes. Although the fibers mats did not show any advantages in terms of ionic conductivity for water-hydrated condition, for the ionic liquids-saturated condition they showed about three folds improvements in ionic conductivity compared with that of conventional film type of membranes having a similar thickness dimension. Also the fabricated fibers mats-based transducers showed higher strain speed of 1.34%/s, which is 52% faster than the films-based actuators.