Sheath-run artificial muscles

Jiuke Mu; Mônica Jung de Andrade; Shaoli Fang; Xuemin Wang; Enlai Gao; Na Li; Shi Hyeong Kim; Hongzhi Wang; Chengyi Hou; Qinghong Zhang; Meifang Zhu; Dong Qian; Hongbing Lu; Dharshika Kongahage; Sepehr Talebian; Javad Foroughi; Geoffrey Spinks; Hyun Kim; Taylor H Ware; Hyeon Jun Sim; Dong Yeop Lee; Yongwoo Jang; Seon Jeong Kim; Ray H Baughman

doi:10.1126/science.aaw2403

Sheath-run artificial muscles

Science. 2019 Jul 12;365(6449):150-155. doi: 10.1126/science.aaw2403.

Authors

Jiuke Mu¹, Mônica Jung de Andrade¹, Shaoli Fang¹, Xuemin Wang^{2

3}, Enlai Gao^{1

4}, Na Li^{1

5}, Shi Hyeong Kim¹, Hongzhi Wang⁶, Chengyi Hou⁶, Qinghong Zhang⁶, Meifang Zhu⁶, Dong Qian², Hongbing Lu², Dharshika Kongahage⁷, Sepehr Talebian⁷, Javad Foroughi⁷, Geoffrey Spinks⁷, Hyun Kim⁸, Taylor H Ware⁸, Hyeon Jun Sim⁹, Dong Yeop Lee⁹, Yongwoo Jang⁹, Seon Jeong Kim⁹, Ray H Baughman¹⁰

Affiliations

¹ Alan G. MacDiarmid NanoTech Institute, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX 75080, USA.
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX 75080, USA.
³ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA 30458, USA.
⁴ Department of Engineering Mechanics, School of Civil Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei 430072, China.
⁵ Materials Science, MilliporeSigma, Milwaukee, WI 53209, USA.
⁶ State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Material Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China.
⁷ Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, Australian Institute for Innovative Materials, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales 2522, Australia.
⁸ Department of Bioengineering, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX 75080, USA.
⁹ Center for Self-Powered Actuation, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, South Korea.
¹⁰ Alan G. MacDiarmid NanoTech Institute, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX 75080, USA. ray.baughman@utdallas.edu.

PMID: 31296765
DOI: 10.1126/science.aaw2403

Abstract

Although guest-filled carbon nanotube yarns provide record performance as torsional and tensile artificial muscles, they are expensive, and only part of the muscle effectively contributes to actuation. We describe a muscle type that provides higher performance, in which the guest that drives actuation is a sheath on a twisted or coiled core that can be an inexpensive yarn. This change from guest-filled to sheath-run artificial muscles increases the maximum work capacity by factors of 1.70 to 2.15 for tensile muscles driven electrothermally or by vapor absorption. A sheath-run electrochemical muscle generates 1.98 watts per gram of average contractile power-40 times that for human muscle and 9.0 times that of the highest power alternative electrochemical muscle. Theory predicts the observed performance advantages of sheath-run muscles.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Artificial Organs*
Carbon Fiber*
Muscle Contraction*
Muscle Fibers, Skeletal*
Nanotubes, Carbon
Tensile Strength

Substances

Carbon Fiber
Nanotubes, Carbon