Experimental Study of Polyaniline Chemical Actuators for Bending Silicon Wafers

Denise Hoover

Date of Award

2007

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Sendova, Mariana

Keywords

Polyaniline, Polymers, Bending, X-ray, Actuators

Area of Concentration

Chemistry

Abstract

Silicon wafers are used as a substrate in many technology applications. Bent silicon substrates provide a curved foundation for building high-energy beam focusing crystals. They can also be used as the substrate for electronics. The goal of this work is to create a method for modifying the curvature of these silicon substrates. In order to induce a uniform, locked-inplace bend, an actuator polymer was considered to be a viable option. Polyaniline (PANI) was chosen because of its ease of production and environmental stability. A PANI/PMMA bimorph was used as a mimic for a PANI/Si system. The bend produced by polyaniline under various processing and actuation conditions was investigated. Thin PANI films (50- 200 !-lm) actuated with acidic doping produced small concave bends in the substrate of 15-75 !-lm. Thick PANI films (0.800-1.5mm) produced the greatest bending (5mm). It was found that the densest films in this series was most efficient. The tensile and compressive stress in the film during solvent evaporation was investigated. A procedure for recreating these displacements for application to a silicon substrate was determined.

Rights

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