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A Hollow Polyethylene Fiber-Based Artificial Muscle

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Abstract

Recently, researches on artificial muscles for imitating the functions of the natural muscles has attracted wide attention. The fiber-shape actuators, shape-memory materials or deforming devices, which are similar to human muscle fiber bundles, have extensively studied and provided more possibilities for artificial muscles. Herein, we develop a thermal responsible fiber-shaped actuator based on the low-cost hollow polyethylene fiber. The sheath-core structured fibrous actuators and the stainless-steel conductive yarn winded pre-stretched polyethylene actuators are fabricated with the heating assisted pre-stretching procedure. The actuation mechanism of the thermal-responsive orientation change of molecular chains driving the actuation is discussed and demonstrated by 2D XRD patterns. These polyethylene-based fibrous actuators displayed three significant advantages including (i) color-turning and shape-changing bifunctional response, (ii) direct joule heating actuation and (iii) effective contraction (18% shrinkage of the pristine length) and lifting ability (the ratio of lifting weight to self-weight is up to 50).

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support by the Manned Spaceflight Advanced Research Funds (17620504) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (16D310606, 17D310606, 106-06-0019058).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tianjin Institute of Power Sources, Tianjin, 300384, People’s Republic of China

    Peng Gao

  2. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 639798, Singapore

    Jiahui Li & Qiuwei Shi

Authors
  1. Peng Gao
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  2. Jiahui Li
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  3. Qiuwei Shi
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Correspondence to Qiuwei Shi.

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Gao, P., Li, J. & Shi, Q. A Hollow Polyethylene Fiber-Based Artificial Muscle. Adv. Fiber Mater. 1, 214–221 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42765-019-00019-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42765-019-00019-6

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