Miniature Arm Lifts Weights

<br>

A small plastic strip can do “weight training” to effortlessly lifts many times its own weight, driven by cyclic changes in the humidity of the surrounding air.

This strong “artificial arm” is based on the interaction between microgels and a layer of polycations that shrinks as it dries, according to a report presented by Canadian researchers in the journal Angewandte Chemie.

Polymer materials that perform work in response to a chemical or physical stimulus are often called “artificial muscles”.

These are very interesting for a number of applications, including controlling the movements of “gentler” robots. All components of such robots need to be soft and flexible so that they don’t damage delicate objects and can move in tight spaces.

The arm developed by researchers working with Michael J. Serpe at the University of Alberta is constructed in the following way: A strip of a plastic film is coated with chromium and gold, followed by a microgel monolayer.

Microgels are cross-linked polymers that swell up with a solvent such as water to form gel particles with diameters of up to a few micrometers. The Canadian researchers used negatively charged microgels made from poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) and acrylic acid. A solution containing polycations is deposited onto the gel. These act as positive counterions.

When this system dries out, the hydrophobic interactions between the hydrocarbon regions of the polymer cations increase considerably, which causes the layer containing the polymer cations to shrink. Because the electrostatic attraction between the polycations and the microgel is very strong and the microgel layer is very firmly attached to the coated sheet of plastic, the ends of the strip bend upwards and the system curls up. When the air humidity is increased, it stretches back out.

The researchers hung one of their strips up in a chamber with controlled humidity conditions. By changing the humidity, they were able to make their artificial arm “grip” the handle of a small package and to “hold on” as it rose up. In another experiment, they hung a chain of paperclips to the end of one extended mini-arm. Cyclic changes in the humidity caused the arm to raise and lower this weight, which was 14 times as heavy as the arm itself, like a miniature weight-lifting exercise.

“Given that a human arm is approximately 6.5 % of the total mass of the human body, this is equivalent to a 75 kg human with a single arm that is capable of lifting 68.3 kg,” Serpe says to illustrate the strength of his miniature arm. Even hanging 52.2 g of weight from a curled-up arm was not enough to stretch it out. If a 75 kg human wanted to achieve a similar feat, he would have to keep his arm bent even with 1280 kg pulling on it.

About the Author
Dr. Michael J. Serpe is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Alberta. His research is focused on using polymer-based materials for a variety of applications; with a particular focus on developing novel point-of-care diagnostics, water remediation systems, and polymer-based muscles and actuators. He was recently awarded the Petro-Canada Young Innovator Award for his research accomplishments.

Author: Michael J. Serpe, University of Alberta, Edmonton (Canada), http://www.chemistry.ualberta.ca/FacultyandStaff/Faculty/MichaelSerpe.aspx

Title: Polymer-Based Muscle Expansion and Contraction
Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Permalink to the article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.201303475
Copy free of charge. We would appreciate a transcript of your article or a reference to it.

The original article is available from our online pressroom at http://pressroom.angewandte.org.

Media Contact

Michael J. Serpe Angewandte Chemie

All latest news from the category: Life Sciences and Chemistry

Articles and reports from the Life Sciences and chemistry area deal with applied and basic research into modern biology, chemistry and human medicine.

Valuable information can be found on a range of life sciences fields including bacteriology, biochemistry, bionics, bioinformatics, biophysics, biotechnology, genetics, geobotany, human biology, marine biology, microbiology, molecular biology, cellular biology, zoology, bioinorganic chemistry, microchemistry and environmental chemistry.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Lighting up the future

New multidisciplinary research from the University of St Andrews could lead to more efficient televisions, computer screens and lighting. Researchers at the Organic Semiconductor Centre in the School of Physics and…

Researchers crack sugarcane’s complex genetic code

Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants….

Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets….

Partners & Sponsors