Bioinspired electrochemical artificial muscles with low voltage redox triggering and spontaneous contraction.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 42380129.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-026-75106-5.
- No licence information is recorded for this record.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
Skeletal muscle operates through a mechanism in which calcium ions act as a trigger at low electric potentials, followed by contraction powered by adenosine triphosphate hydrolysis. Inspired by this process, we have developed an electrochemical artificial muscle with low-voltage redox triggering and spontaneous contraction. Triggering is achieved by electrochemically charging the muscles at voltages below 0.4 V, which enables I<sub>3</sub>⁻ injection and subsequent oxidation to I<sub>2</sub>. Spontaneous muscle contraction then occurs via the reaction I<sub>2</sub> + I⁻ → I<sub>3</sub>⁻, analogous to the role of adenosine triphosphate in skeletal muscle contraction, yet fundamentally distinct from conventional electrochemical artificial muscles. Following this mechanism, pristine carbon nanotube yarn muscles and carbon nanotube yarn muscles modified by quaternary ammonium cations generated contractile strokes of 5.2% and 15.5%, respectively. Moreover, the contracted state can be stably maintained without electrical energy input, and full recovery to the original length is achieved by applying a reverse voltage. Such mechanisms present a promising strategy for the development of energy-efficient artificial muscles.