Electroactive Polymer Actuators: From Lab to Market

ElectroActive Polymer (EAP) materials and actuators represent today a well established and promising scientific field of research and industrial development. EAP materials are commonly classified in two major families: ionic EAPs, activated by an electrically-induced transport of ions and/or solvent, and electronic EAPs, activated by electrostatic forces. Ionic EAPs comprehend polymer gels, ionic polymer metal composites (including later evolutions to ionic polymer conductor composites, and the variant of interpenetrating polymer networks), conjugated polymers, and carbon nanotubes. Electronic EAPs comprehend piezoelectric polymers, electrostrictive polymers, dielectric elastomers, liquid crystal elastomers, and carbon nanotube aerogels. Although several EAP materials and their properties have been known for many decades, they have found very limited applications. Such a trend has changed recently, as a result of an effective synergy of at least three main factors: key scientific breakthroughs being achieved in some of the existing EAP technologies; unprecedented electromechanical properties being discovered in materials previously developed for different purposes; higher concentration of efforts for industrial exploitation. As an outcome, after several years of basic research, today the EAP field is just starting to undergo transition from academia into commercialization, with significant investments from large companies. This paper presents a brief overview on the field of EAP actuators, and provides a picture of ongoing industrial developments.