The square rod-shaped ionic polymer-metal composite and its application in interventional surgical guide device

Ionic polymer-metal composite (IPMC) is an electro-active polymer material, which has many advantages such as small size, light weight, low driving voltage, large strain, and good biocompatibility. However, the conventional sheet IPMC has the shortcoming of only bending in the two-dimensional plane, which greatly limits the application of IPMC in the field of interventional surgery. In this work, a square rod-shaped IPMC with multi-degree-of-freedom motion was fabricated, and the displacement and blocking force of the square rod-shaped IPMC in different directions are measured and analyzed under the DC voltage signal. An interventional catheter was designed using the square rod-shaped IPMC in order to achieve active guidance, and a simulation experiment platform and a model of human aorta were built to successfully complete the in vitro simulation experiment of interventional surgery, which preliminarily verified the feasibility of the square rod-shaped IPMC in the field of interventional surgery.

离子聚合物-金属复合材料（Ionic polymer-metal composite, IPMC）是一类电活性聚合物材料，具备体积小巧、重量轻盈、驱动电压低、应变幅度大、生物相容性优异等诸多优势。然而传统片状IPMC仅能在二维平面内发生弯曲变形，这一缺陷极大限制了其在介入手术领域的应用。本研究制备了一种具备多自由度运动能力的方杆状IPMC，并在直流电压信号下对该方杆状IPMC在不同方向的位移与阻滞力进行了测试与分析。基于该方杆状IPMC设计了一款可实现主动导引功能的介入导管，同时搭建了体外模拟实验平台与人体主动脉模型，成功完成了介入手术体外模拟实验，初步验证了方杆状IPMC在介入手术领域的应用可行性。