Textile Actuators (and Sensors) Based on Conjugated Polymers

Conjugated polymers are soft and compliant materials that can actuate (change their volume). When an electrical current is passed through the material, a reversible electrochemical reaction is promoted. Such electrochemical reaction changes the composition of the material and with that its volume, by incorporating or removing ions and solvent to or from the material. This electrochemically-driven actuation requires only a low potential of 1-2 V and is silent. During the last years we have merged conjugated polymers with textiles and textile processing to develop textile actuators. The fabrication of textiles is highly optimized in a vastly automated industry. Besides, textiles are ubiquitous and very well accepted by humans: Textile are the ultimate wearables. By merging both technologies, we are providing the textiles with mechanical actuation which will be of great interest for different applications such as wearable haptic devices, rehabilitation wearables or textile exoskeletons. Besides, conjugated polymers can also be used as sensors, and when merged with textiles, this results in textile sensors. In this invited talk, I will cover the working principles, latest progress and challenges of textile actuators (and sensors) based on conjugated polymers, including some application examples.