Formation and characterization of Pt-Cu-IPMC with high specific surface area and dendritic electrode

Ionic polymer–metal composite (IPMC) is a kind of electroactive intelligent material. The dendritically interfacial electrodes (DIEs) is very important to the performance of IPMC. Herein, the copper–platinum composite electrode (Pt-Cu-IPMC) with a high specific area DIEs was prepared by combining impregnation-reduction plating platinum (IRP-Pt), autocatalytic plating platinum (ACP-Pt) and chemical reduction plating copper (CRP-Cu). The effects of DIEs and the cycles of ACP-Pt have been systematically investigated on the electrode’s thickness, micro-morphology and electromechanical response characteristics of all samples. Importantly, when the cycles of ACP-Pt increases, the platinum and copper particles in the ionomer membrane are highly dispersed. For example, when the cycles of ACP-Pt is 4, the penetration depth of the DIEs reaches 31.98 µm. Thus, copper and platinum dendrites were clearly observed in the samples. Combined with the analysis of the strain energy density, it showed that the presence of DIEs has some impact on the driving performance of the IPMC, the tip displacement, and blocking force of 67.27 mm and 27.21 mN have been achieved in the Pt-Cu-IPMC after three cycles of ACP-Pt.