Recently, a research team from School of Mechanical Engineering of Jiangsu University (JSU) published a research paper entitled Artificial Muscles Based on Coiled Conductive Polymer Yarns in Advanced Functional Materials, a top journal in the field of functional materials. Associate research professor Hu Hongwei is the first author of the paper, and Prof. Cheng Guanggui, Prof. Ding Jianning and Prof. Yeng Ming Lam of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore are the co-corresponding authors.

Lightweight artificial muscle is applicable across a broad spectrum of fields such as soft robotics, prosthetics, and biomedical devices due to their distinctive features, including inherent flexibility, high efficiency, and rapid responsiveness. However, prevailing challenges persist for most contemporary artificial muscles, encompassing issues such as low strain, low power density, unwieldy actuation, and high material costs. In this paper, their work have developed artificial muscles based on pure conductive polymer coiled yarns, revealing the actuation mechanism of high-strength conductive polymer microfibers, which is a contractile strain exceeding 11% at a high stress of 5 MPa, equivalent to lifting load of more than 4000 times of their own masses, at a low input voltage of 1 V. In addition, Lightweight artificial muscle has the ability of hydration-induced contraction and swift recovery, and becomes a promising cost-effective alternative to carbon nanotubes, which provides a new path for large-scale, low-cost preparation of artificial muscle.