Submission + - We can make you stronger.
Valor1016 writes: "A group of researchers in California have developed an artifical muscle that heals itself and generates electricity.
"We've made an artificial muscle that, when you apply electricity to it, it expands, more than 200 percent, the motion and energy is a lot like human muscles" said Qibing Pei, a scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles and study author.
The researchers used flexible carbon nanotubes as electrodes instead of other materials, often metal-based, that fail after repeated use. If an area of the carbon nanotube fails, the region around it seals itself by becoming non-conductive and prevents the damage from spreading to other areas.
This material also conserves about 70% of the energy you put into it. As the material contracts after an expansion the rearranging of the carbon nanotubes generates a small electric current that can be captured and used to power another expansion or stored in a battery."
"We've made an artificial muscle that, when you apply electricity to it, it expands, more than 200 percent, the motion and energy is a lot like human muscles" said Qibing Pei, a scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles and study author.
The researchers used flexible carbon nanotubes as electrodes instead of other materials, often metal-based, that fail after repeated use. If an area of the carbon nanotube fails, the region around it seals itself by becoming non-conductive and prevents the damage from spreading to other areas.
This material also conserves about 70% of the energy you put into it. As the material contracts after an expansion the rearranging of the carbon nanotubes generates a small electric current that can be captured and used to power another expansion or stored in a battery."
