Investigations on some selected conducting polymers and polymer ...

I ntroduction.
mechanical properties in the polymer/filler blend and results in
considerable processing problems in the production of textile fibers.
Conducting polymers offer an interesting alternative to coated or filled
plastics and textiles. However films and fibers of many conjugated
polymers are brittle, expensive to produce, and difficult to maufacture
on a large scale. Textiles ofvarious kinds represent a reasonable choice
as a substrate for thin coatings of such polymers. Conductive textile
composites show surface resistances in the same range as metallised
fabrics and carbon based blends. Moreover they show excellent
adhesion and noncorrosive character as compared to metal coated
fabrics.
1.11.6 Electro chemo mechanical devices
The basic principle behind the fabrication of electro chemo
mechanical devices using conducting polymers is that the free volume
of a conducting polymer increases during oxidation and decreases
during reduction[71].Contraction and expansion of gel fibers provide a
means of converting chemical energy into mechanical energy, which
can be used to develop artificial muscles and actuators. Artificial
muscles are able to describe angular movements of greater than 360°,
trailing several hundred times of their own weight. Flory [72] has
proposed an equation of state for the equilibrium swelling of gels that
consists of four terms-an elasticity term, a mixing entropy term, a
polymer-solvent interaction term and a term for osmotic pressure due to
free counterions. The other factors influencing the gel volume are
temperature, the kind of solvent, the free ion concentration, the degree