Unipolar Carbon Nanotube Muscles: Ten to Thirty Times Human Muscle and Two to Six times Diesel V8 | NextBigFuture.com

Researchers describe creating powerful, unipolar electrochemical yarn muscles that contract more when driven faster, thereby solving important problems that have limited the applications for these muscles. This polymer coating converts the normal bipolar actuation of carbon nanotube yarns to unipolar actuation, where the muscle actuates in one direction over the entire stability range of the electrolyte. This long-sought behavior has surprising consequences that make electrochemical carbon nanotube muscles much faster and more powerful. The advances provide electrochemical unipolar muscles that contract to generate a maximum average output mechanical power per muscle weight of 2.9 watts/gram, which is about 10 times The post Unipolar Carbon Nanotube Muscles: Ten to Thirty Times Human Muscle and Two to Six times Diesel V8 first appeared on NextBigFuture.com.