Publication Date:
2011-10-15
Description:
Rotary motors of conventional design can be rather complex and are therefore difficult to miniaturize; previous carbon nanotube artificial muscles provide contraction and bending, but not rotation. We show that an electrolyte-filled twist-spun carbon nanotube yarn, much thinner than a human hair, functions as a torsional artificial muscle in a simple three-electrode electrochemical system, providing a reversible 15,000 degrees rotation and 590 revolutions per minute. A hydrostatic actuation mechanism, as seen in muscular hydrostats in nature, explains the simultaneous occurrence of lengthwise contraction and torsional rotation during the yarn volume increase caused by electrochemical double-layer charge injection. The use of a torsional yarn muscle as a mixer for a fluidic chip is demonstrated.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Foroughi, Javad -- Spinks, Geoffrey M -- Wallace, Gordon G -- Oh, Jiyoung -- Kozlov, Mikhail E -- Fang, Shaoli -- Mirfakhrai, Tissaphern -- Madden, John D W -- Shin, Min Kyoon -- Kim, Seon Jeong -- Baughman, Ray H -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2011 Oct 28;334(6055):494-7. doi: 10.1126/science.1211220. Epub 2011 Oct 13.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21998253" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
*Biomimetic Materials
;
Electrodes
;
Electrolytes
;
*Muscles
;
*Nanotubes, Carbon
;
Rotation
;
Torque
;
Torsion, Mechanical
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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