All organic actuation and sensing devices

Abstract

In this work, all-organic structures with sensing and acting capabilities are prepared and tested. The devices have been realized by covering Nafion <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">reg</sup> membranes with conducting polymers as electrode elements. The selection of both the materials and the deposition techniques has been addressed taking into account the chemical-physical characteristics of the membrane. Several tests have been performed in order to characterize both the morphological and electrical behavior of the obtained structures. The results show that it is possible to produce all-organic devices based on Nafion <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">reg</sup> that have electromechanic transduction capacities. The possibility to use these devices both as sensing and acting elements has been demonstrated.