Researchers at the Nanotech Institute at the University of Texas at Dallas have spun carbon Nanotubes into a yarn just 2% of the thickness of a human hair.
This artificial muscle is claimed to exert 100 times the force, per area, of a natural muscle.
Such artificial muscles can in future be used to develop prosthetic limbs.
Ray Baughman the Director of the Nanotech Institute had previously developed carbon nanotube actuators that convert energy in Hydrogen into mechanical force. He then had used a configuration similar to a fuel cell in which the catalyst coated carbon nanotube electrodes function as actuators that were able to change their size in response to the electric charge.
The tubes now developed by Baughman use the immense strength of the carbon nanotube which is just 2 % of the width of a hair and a meter long.
Baughman is facing a problem with his tubes that the tubes when subjected to force do not completely return to their original shape after some cycles of application. And he commented that this creep should be eliminated before these tubes can be used in applications such as prosthetic limbs.
Besides such problems this research work by Baughman represents important advances for carbon nanotube based artificial muscles.
Via: technologyreview
