Artificial Muscle Material with Fast Electroactuation under Neutral pH Conditions

Abstract

A novel artificial muscle material based on an acrylic acid/acrylamide hydrogel blended with a conductive polypyrrole/carbon black composite was prepared. The material was optimized in terms of its electroactuation response by varying the acrylic acid content, the blending concentration of the conductive composite, and the intensity of the electric field. The artificial muscle material showed a fast and reversible electroactuation when a low potential was applied. Further, the artificial muscle was incorporated into a microfabricated pumping device that exhibited reproducible flow rates, thus demonstrating its potential usefulness in bio-micro-electro-mechanical systems (BioMEMS) applications.

Hydrogels for Soft Machines

“…It may be that some composite gel materials will show responses to external fields other than the ionization-induced swelling, which has been widely studied. Moschou et al [172] reported fast bending responses for carbon-filled gel bars about 0.5 mm thick. The Figure 5.…”

Microfluidic patterning of alginate hydrogels

“…An interesting physical property of hydrogels resulting from this structure is the response to changes of solvent, ionic strength, 1 pH, 2,3 electric field, 4 temperature, 5 or light 6 by a reversible expansion or shrinkage of volume. This effect is utilized in efforts to produce artificial muscles 7 or for autonomous valves in fluidic systems. 2,8 Thermoresponsive hydrogels are used for pumping, metering, and flow regulation in microfluidic chips.…”

Smart polymeric gels: Redefining the limits of biomedical devices

“…Specifically, in the context of microfluidics, responsive hydrogels have been engineered as microscale components including valves, jackets, and flow sorters. Kuhn et al first identified hydrogels as "chemical muscles" in 1950 [275]; from then until now, there has been significant progress in the field with the conceptualization of artificial muscle-like actuators [276][277][278][279][280]. On a slightly sour note, however, no artificial muscle model based on MEMS or even otherwise, appropriately emulating the coordination and power of natural muscles, has been conceptualized.…”