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Soft and Wet Conducting Polymers for Artificial Muscles
Author(s) -
Otero Toribio F.,
Sansieña Jose M.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1521-4095(199804)10:6<491::aid-adma491>3.0.co;2-q
Subject(s) - artificial muscle , polymer , materials science , mechanical energy , conductive polymer , bilayer , nanotechnology , chemical energy , polymer science , soft materials , mechanism (biology) , chemical physics , composite material , membrane , thermodynamics , organic chemistry , chemistry , actuator , electrical engineering , power (physics) , biochemistry , physics , philosophy , epistemology , engineering
Muscles convert chemical energy to mechanical energy plus heat at constant temperature. The search for artificial muscles that do the same is described, beginning with polymer gels—which were restricted to slow movements and had high energy consumption—and ending with the bilayer devices that have been constructed from conducting polymers more recently. The mechanism of operation of these devices is explained, showing how the electrochemically stimulated conformational movements of the conducting polymer chains are translated into macroscopic movements.