You're here: My Science Blogging » Discovery » Article: Carbon Nanotubes To Strengthen Artificial Muscles
Yessi Pratiwi — July 19, 2007 / 7:50 pm
NewScientist America reported, carbon nanotubes also having a springy side beside known as the ultra-strong material. Before, it is known well of its capability that might one day form the cable of a “space elevator” capable of raising people into Earth orbit. The discovery shows that nanotubes keep bouncing back after being compressed repeatedly. This means, this exotic form of carbon may be just the thing to give artificial muscles some extra strength.
To test the nanotubes ability to resist fatigue, the team took a 2-millimetre-square block in which many millions of nanotubes were aligned vertically, and repeatedly compressed it between two steel plates once every 0.75 seconds for over 100 hours. Even after 500,000 compressions, in which the tubes were repeatedly squashed to 75 per cent of their original length, the block kept pinging back almost to its original shape.
Today’s most promising artificial muscles are based on electroactive polymers (EAPs) - plastics that change shape when activated electrically or with chemicals. But they lack mechanical robustness and as a result soon succumb to fatigue and fail.
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