This low-voltage breakthrough is the new way to exercise your artificial muscles

Scientists created thin, flexible bottlebrush polymer film that can function at lower voltages as artificial muscles than materials currently available. This could allow their use in medical devices or artificial organs.

Muscles in your body expand and contract smoothly, whether you’re wriggling toes or picking up groceries. Some polymers are able to do the same — act like artificial muscles — when they’re stimulated with dangerously high voltages. Researchers in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces have developed a series thin, elastic films which respond to electrical charges that are significantly lower. These materials are a first step towards artificial muscles that may be used in medical devices one day.

Artificial muscles can be used to create movable soft robot implants and functional artificial Organs. Bottlebrush polymers and other electroactive elastomers are good materials for this because they begin soft, but become stiffer when stretched. They can also change shape when charged electrically. Currently available bottlebrush films can only be moved at voltages above 4,000 V. This is higher than the 50 V limit that the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration considers safe. The voltages could be reduced by reducing the thickness of the films to less 100 um, but it hasn’t yet been achieved for bottlebrush polymers. Dorina Opris, along with her colleagues, wanted to discover a way to make thinner films.

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Flex Your Artificial Muscles: The New Low-Voltage Breakthrough