A typical ionic-polymer-metal composite consists of a thin perfluorinated ionomer membrane and noble metal electrodes plated on both surfaces. It undergoes a large bending motion when an electric field is applied. With proper arrangement and package, a great number of "smart devices" including artificial muscle are anticipated. In this study, a solution-cast route was used to prepare the electro-active polymer membrane, Nafion^TM (DuPont Co.), and Pt electrodes were fabricated onto the membrane through electro-less plating. The results showed that weights facilitate the crystallnity of the solution-cast films. The Iamor.(778cm^-1)/ Isymm(1156cm^-1) in FTIR increased with loadings. The shift in WAXD peaks also supported this fact. The number and size of the crystalline domains of solution-cast film decrease as studied by SAXS. The Young's Modulus of solution-cast film decreases as increasing weight because of the loss of crystallinity (180~140 MPa). A finely dispersed platinum particle deeper and gradient penetrating within the near-boundary region with a smaller average particle size and more uniform distribution could be obtained through a reverse electro-less plating. Its surface roughness is 3nm comparing to 52nm of a traditional process. But its surface resistance is too high (3.5 ohm) to activate the bending. To solve this problem, we coated the second Pt electrodes by a typical electro-less plating, and the resistance decreased to 0.7 ohm. The results depicted that the fabricated IPMC shows longer bending lifetime than typical IPMC. In a 0.09% NaCl solution, the device was able to vibrate for 8 hours under a 5V, 0.1 Hz actuation.

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