Investigation of stencil/ screen printing of silver (Ag) electrodes for ionic polymer metal composites (IPMCs)

The main method for Ionic Polymer Metal Composite (IPMC) electrode fabrication employs RED-OX deposition of noble metals. However, as this chemical plating technique is expensive, time-consuming and uses dangerous chemicals, we investigate the deposition of silver (Ag) electrodes by an additive manufacturing technique; stencil/ screen printing. The results indicate exceptional adhesion and mechanical stability of the cured ink to the Nafion. Moreover, the electrical properties (surface resistance measurements with the 2-probe method), microstructure (with Scanning Electron Microscopy), in addition to the electro-Active properties (deflection measurements after slight hydration of sample in water and the application of square waveforms of 10 V in amplitude and 0.05 Hz in frequency) of the 5 mm x 20 mm Ag metalised IPMCs in a cantilever configuration are tested. Resistances are low, in the range of 1.1-1.6 ω, and SEM micrographs indicate electrodes of 10 μm in thickness. Preliminary results illustrate a similar relationship of the induced displacements and the applied voltages and for the samples. The methodology for the fabricated Ag-stencil/ screen printed-electroded IPMCs is introduced, and the properties of these IPMCs are exhibited. This paper hence presents a proof of principle study, utilising a method that can significantly reduce IPMC production costs, as it decreases material prises by approximately 98% and fabrication times from 48 hours down to less than an hour compared to the state-of-Theart technique.