Performance of Electro-Active Papers Made with Cellulose and Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

Cellulose-based Electro-Active Paper (EAPap) has been studied as an attractive electroactive polymer material for artificial muscles due to its low cost, availability, lightweight, large displacement output, low actuation voltage and low power consumption. However, the force output of EAPap is small since paper is so flexible that the bending stiffness is low. In this paper, the cellulose based EAPap material is enhanced by using carbon nanotubes with cellulose paper. Coating of multi-walled carbon nanotubes mixed with polyaniline on EAPap as well as MWNT dispersion in the paper are tried to enhance the force output of the EAPap. The coating process of MWNT/PANI on the EAPap and the dispersion of MWNT in the cellulose paper are explained. The performance of the hybrid EAPap actuators is evaluated in terms of tip displacement, blocking force and electrical power consumption. The power output and the actuator efficiency are improved.