31. Micro Pump Driven by a Pair of Conducting Polymer Soft Actuators

Micro pumps are regarded as key components of many MEMS devices. They are widely used in the fluid operations systems of fields ranging from chemistry and biotechnology to mechanical engineering. The micro pumps developed to present generally incorporate piezoelectric-element, thermopneumatic, electrostatic, electromagnetic, electroosmotic, electromagnetic-fluid, and various other drives, but along with their reduced size they have increased in component number and structural complexity. The conducting polymer soft actuator based on polypyrrole opens widely and closes completely as a result of electrochemical oxidation and reduction, respectively. The opening and closing movement of the soft actuator, inside which the cation-driven layer is arranged, becomes large because the anion-driven layer that is arranged outside is the predominant driver. We developed a micro pump that is driven by a pair of conducting polymer soft actuator based on polypyrrole and clarified the fundamental characteristics and transport mechanism of the micro pump. The proposed micro pump can transport fluids unidirectionally without backflow by means of a pair of conducting polymer soft actuators that open and close. Furthermore, a wider range of flow rates and a greater maximum delivery head was obtained with the proposed micro pump. The energy consumption rate of the proposed micro pump is dramatically lower than the energy consumption rates of conventional micro pumps because the conducting polymer soft actuator can be driven with a low voltage.