Soft Actuators Prepared by Electrochemical Copolymerization of Pyrrole and Methyl 1H-Pyrrole-3-Carboxylate

Abstract

The electrochemical polymerization of pyrrole and methyl 1-H pyrrole-3-carboxylate was performed. A counter electrode (Ti), a reference electrode (Ag/AgCl), and a working electrode (Ti) were immersed into methyl benzoate solutions of 0.25 M of pyrrole and methyl 1-H pyrrole-3-carboxylate with 100:0, 98:2, 95:5, 80:20 mol ratios and 0.2 M N,N-diethyl-N-methyl-N-(2-methoxyethyl)ammonium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl) imide. The thickness of the prepared films was measured to be approximately 100 µm using a micrometer. The PPy actuator was used as the working electrode in the 1 M LiTFSI aqueous electrolyte solutions. The Py copolymer film, fabricated from pyrrole solution containing 2 and 5 mol% of methyl 1-H pyrrole-3-carboxylate showed a reduced actuating strain of approximately 2%, but the creep strain was reduced to less than 1%. The cross-linking of PPy actuators resulted in reductions of both the actuating strain and the electrochemical creep.