Ex-situ temperature and humidity aging effect on the tensile behavior of Nafion N117 membrane used in Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite actuators

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Nafion N117 is a kind of polymer electrolyte membrane widely used as the ion exchange material in Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite (IPMC) actuators. The mechanical properties of N117 have a great effect on the performance of IPMC actuators. During the manufacturing of IPMC, the procedure includes heating/annealing, and soaking/drying. The membrane is very sensitive to temperature and humidity conditions, so we believe that returning to the initial conditions, irreversible variation of the mechanical properties has occurred during these treatments. This paper focuses on the effect of thermal and hygroscopic treatments on the mechanical responses of the Nafion N117 membrane. The results obtained from this study showed that no matter the thermal or hygroscopic treatments applied, it would decrease the elastic modulus and yielding stress. Furthermore, this decreasing was mainly showed in the intermolecular response. We also found the treated specimens regardless of thermal and hygroscopic treatments showed a sharp transition from elastic to plastic behavior. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.