Chemical plating method is one of the most common manufacturing techniques of IPMC (Ionic polymer-metal composites) electrode. But the preparation period of conventional chemical silver plating method is about 32 h

which is very time consuming. Thus

the electrophoretic deposition method was proposed in this paper. MCNT (multiwalled carbon nanotube) was introduced in the electrophoretic deposition method. In considering the poor combination of MCNT and Nafion membrane

an electroless silver plating reaction was first carried out before the electrophoretic deposition method. Finally

MCNT-Ag-IPMC was successfully prepared. In addition

the influences of electrophoresis voltage and deposition time

two important parameters in electrophoretic deposition method

on the actuating performance of IPMC were also studied. As a result

the preparation period of electrophoretic deposition method was half of that of the conventional chemical silver plating method. In addition

the actuating performance of prepared IPMC was fully superior to that of conventional chemical silver plating method. It could be concluded that the electrophoretic deposition method is a promising method for the preparation of IPMC electrode.