Nonlinear capacitance and electrochemical behavior of ionic liquid-ionic polymer transducers

Ionic polymer transducers (IPTs) are soft sensors and actuators which operate through a coupling of micro-scale chemical, electrical, and mechanical interactions. The use of an ionic liquid as solvent for an IPT has been shown to dramatically increase transducer lifetime in free-air use, while also allowing for higher applied voltages without electrolysis. In this work we model charge transport in an ionic liquid IPT by considering both the cation and anion of the ionic liquid as mobile charge carriers, a phenomenon which is unique to ionic liquid IPTs compared to their water-based counterparts. The electrochemical behavior of the large ionic liquid ions is described through a modification of the Nernst-Planck equation given by Kornyshev which accounts for steric effects in double layer packing. The method of matched asymptotic expansions is applied to solve the resulting system of equations, and analytical expressions are derived for the nonlinear charge transferred and capacitance of the IPT as a function of the applied voltage. The influence of the fraction of mobile ionic liquid ions and steric effects on the capacitance of an ionic liquid IPT is shown and compared to water-based IPTs. These results show the fundamental charge transport differences between water-based and ionic liquid IPTs and give considerations for future transducer development.