Electrochemical membrane microactuator with a millisecond response time

SENSORS AND ACTUATORS B-CHEMICAL

卷:260

Article

Uvarov, Ilia V.¹  Lokhanin, Mikhail V.²  Postnikov, Alexander V.¹  Melenev, Artem E.²  Svetovoy, Vitaly B.^1,3 

[1] RAS, Inst Phys & Technol, Yaroslavl Branch, Univ Skaya 21, Yaroslavl 150007, Russia

[2] PG Demidov Yaroslavl State Univ, Sovetskaya 14, Yaroslavl 150000, Russia

[3] Univ Groningen, Zernike Inst Adv Mat, Nijenborgh 4, NL-9747 AG Groningen, Netherlands

关键词: Electrochemical actuators;    Water electrolysis;    Nanobubbles;    Combustion reactions;    Microfluidics;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.snb.2017.12.159

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Lack of fast and strong actuators to drive microsystems is well recognized. Electrochemical actuators are considered attractive for many applications but they have long response time (minutes) due to slow gas termination. Here an electrochemical actuator is presented for which the response time can be as short as 1 ms. The alternating polarity water electrolysis is used to drive the device. In this process only nanobubbles are formed. The gas in nanobubbles can be terminated fast due to surface assisted reaction between hydrogen and oxygen that happens at room temperature. The working chamber of the actuator contains concentric titanium electrodes; it has a diameter of 500 mu m and a height of 8 mu m. The chamber is sealed by a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane of 30 pin thick. The device is characterized by an interferometer and a fast camera. Cyclic operation at frequency up to 667 Hz with a stroke of about 30% of the chamber volume is demonstrated. The cycles repeat themselves with high precision providing the volume strokes in picoliter range. Controlled explosions in the chamber can push the membrane up to 90 mu m. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

Free