Sample Solution

Methodology
As it has been mentioned before, one problem with using IPMC is that it has been produced largely in a very thin layer or membranes. Many researchers have been trying to develop a way to produce a thicker and customable IPMC. Two of them are Kwang K. and Mohsen Shahinpoor M. They are trying to develop a thicker IPMC membranes that may be applied to many other areas. There are many ways to manufacture thicker membrane, two of them are solution casting method and multi layering technique. Multi layering technique simply means layering multiple IPMC to increase the thickness while solution casting means composite will be manufactured from a liquid form of ionic polymer and pour it into a cast.

Currently, there are three types of available ionic polymer or raw material for IPMC in the market, which are powder, solid, and liquid Nafion (DuPont). All three are essentially the same but are in different form. Each of those is used depending on what kind of product or application that it is going to be used in.

In this research, liquid Nafion was used to create a thick membrane. Liquid is chosen because it is easy to work with, and compare to the powder form, liquid Nafion has higher yield strength. Liquid Nafion is composed of 10% Nafion and 90% water/alcohol based solvent. The manufacturing process start from pouring liquid Nafion to Pyrex glass and heat it to 70 degrees, when it starts to solidify, the temperature is further increased to 150 for curing process. The last step is to electroplate the solid Nafion with platinum.

Critic

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