CPD - Electroactive Polymers: Applications for Smart Construction Materials

Making a building is difficult because it includes several parts that you need to carefully use and think about. For example, you have to make a good building, but you need to make it safe for the environment. You can do this by reducing the use of energy. In this case, you can use a switcher to change energy into mechanical movement to do the tasks by itself, control components, and improve building quality, safety, and project management. With this, you need to use electroactive polymers (EAP).

Despite its benefits, polymer difficulty happens because of several reasons. It includes its slow response time to stress, reliance on wet environments, and possible electrolysis. There are several steps you need to take to solve them. For instance, you must improve the natural decay process through germs. This is because some EAPs, especially with carbon nanomaterials, are not biodegradable. Thus, it can lead to long-term environmental impact. This course is good for you to learn more about electroactive polymers.

Understanding polymer

A polymer is a large particle that consists of many small particles put together through a chemical bond, specifically strong covalent bonds. This process is called polymerization. Polymerization is important for making several chemical materials with different properties. You can use these properties across many parts of life. In the construction field, it is utilised for flooring, windows, cladding, pipes, membranes, insulation, sealants, and adhesives.

Because of this, there are a lot of builders who use polymers in construction since it is lightweight, strong, and flexible. Using these materials lessens the costs and improves the building process of the workers making the structure. It can also reduce the usage of energy by using electroactive polymers for a sensor.

These sensors detect any changes in a building to prevent it from collapsing. These devices will start to work by changing their size or shape. This is the reaction to any stress or strain stimuli when engaged in the sensors. As a result, it can help you identify cracks or damages in the structure.

What are electroactive polymers used for?

Electroactive polymers can be used as a switch, sensors, artificial muscles, and devices for medical treatments. It works by making a reaction when it is engaged with an electrical trigger. This reaction then changes its shape and size and acts as an actuator or switch. You can use this to make the systems work by themselves and control several items within a building structure, like HVAC, lighting, and security. To understand it more, below are several roles of this polymer in the construction sector, such as:  

• Soundproofing and vibration control
• Energy saving
• Actuation and sensing
• Flexible structures

Types of electroactive polymers

There are two types of electroactive polymers: ionic and electronic EAPs. These types work differently in making a structure. Ionic EAP will rely on ion movement, and a wet electrolyte needs to be activated. Meanwhile, electronic EAP relies on electric field interactions that will work in dry conditions.

With all the differences, these two bring some disadvantages to each type. For example, ionic brings problems in upkeeping wetness as electrolytes need to be worked. At the same time, electronics may not get along with ionic because it has lower biocompatibility. To understand more about these two, below is the information that you need to understand:

Ionic electroactive polymers

Ionic EAPs are smart substances that react to electrical triggers by changing their physical shape or size. It transforms by using the movement of ions within a polymer layer that comes from an applied electric field. This results in a low-power actuation that you can use as a switch, sensor, artificial muscles, and other smart parts for building work.

Electronic electroactive polymers

Electronic EAPs are other smart parts that react to the responsiveness of electricity by using electron movement for actuation. The process starts when there is an electricity field. But sometimes, the changes in the dipole alignment or polymer electronic polarisation can also trigger it. However, it may need a higher power to make the actuation work as a shift of shape.

Course Overview

Electroactive polymers bring a lot of good things for builders when making a building. It can improve quality, make smart building capabilities, and increase the eco-friendly impact. Doing so can help them make structures that are strong, resilient, greener, and efficient. With this in mind, EAPs have a big role in the construction industry.

To learn how electroactive polymers work for this sector, the speaker of this training will walk you through everything you need to understand about this building substance. They will teach several parts of the polymer type that can make electricity. By the end of the course, you will get a completion certificate to prove your knowledge and skills in using this soft switcher.

Course Structure

The CPD - Electroactive Polymers: Applications for Smart Construction Materials course will start off with an overview about the EAP. It includes its meaning, how it works for building work, current quality, potential, and challenges. It also follows with a complete description of the different types and the use of EAPs in daily life. Therefore, this programme will allow you to:

• Learn the basic knowledge of electroactive polymers when making a structure.
• Understanding how these polymers work for the building sector.
• Find out the different types of EAPs and how they work differently.
• Describe the capabilities, limitations, and benefits of EAPs.
• Identify the best practices of EAPs in building construction.

Entry Criteria

We created this CPD - Electroactive Polymers: Applications for Smart Construction Materials course to help you understand these conductors. Therefore, it will benefit those workers who work in the electrical and building sector, like electrical engineers, contractors, civil engineers, and technicians. This is because they may get familiar with the terms that will be used in the discussion. However, people from all backgrounds can also join the class as it doesn’t need any formal educational background and relevant experience. 

Future trend of electroactive polymers in the construction industry

The future of electroactive polymers in the building sector is promising. This can lower the use of energy, doesn’t have the additional difficulty of mechanical parts, has an adaptable design, and is soundproofing. For this reason, a lot of builders use them to build structures. This makes EAPs become smart materials that can protect structures from any damage.

To understand how to manage electroactive polymers, the College of Contract Management has created several courses about the building sector. One of them is about the soft switcher of energy. The college aims to provide a convenient but effective learning programme for you to understand the difficulties within the sector. Therefore, CCM collaborated with industry experts to make the lessons practical and fun. 

This CPD - Electroactive Polymers: Applications for Smart Construction Materials course explores several parts of polymer materials. However, we will announce the course schedule separately as we are still working on the arrangements for the speakers and materials. Therefore, we encourage you to contact our team to stay updated about further details. They can also help you if you need further assistance.