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Artificial muscles based on nematic gels
Author(s) -
De Gennes PierreGilles,
Hébert Matthieu,
Kant Rama
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
macromolecular symposia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.257
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1521-3900
pISSN - 1022-1360
DOI - 10.1002/masy.19971130107
Subject(s) - liquid crystal , artificial muscle , swelling , materials science , polymer , relaxation (psychology) , stress (linguistics) , stress relaxation , contraction (grammar) , composite material , computer science , actuator , optoelectronics , artificial intelligence , medicine , psychology , social psychology , linguistics , philosophy , creep
Mechano‐chemical conversion through the swelling of polymer gels suffers from several limitations, as far as the artificial muscles applications are concerned: mechanical response is too slow and strong local stress damages the sample. We propose a different approach to bypass these difficulties: artificial muscles based on nematic gels. When the temperature is lowered below the nematic clearing point, strong uniaxial deformations occur. The estimated shape relaxation time is well within actual muscle contraction times.