title: Hydro-actuation of hybrid carbon nanotube yarn muscles.
abstract: Hybrid hydro-responsive actuators are developed by infiltrating carbon nanotube yarns using poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate). These actuators demonstrate impressive rotation and contraction in response to water due to volumetric expansion of the helical arrangement of carbon nanotubes. The total torsional stroke is 3720 revolutions per m and the simultaneously generated contractive strain reaches 24% at a paddle-to-yarn mass ratio of 350. The contraction output can furthermore be significantly enhanced by constraining the rotational motion and it reaches 68% with an applied stress of 1 MPa. Additionally, hybrid yarns exhibit an approximately linear response to humidity changes and show extra capability of electrical actuation, which, combined with the excellent hydro-actuation performance, endow them with great potential for a variety of applications including artificial muscles, hydro-driven generators, moisture switches and microfluidic mixers.
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China. wyzhou@iphy.ac.cn ssxie@iphy.ac.cn and Beijing Key Laboratory for Advanced Functional Materials and Structure Research, Beijing 100190, China and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Xiaogang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China. wyzhou@iphy.ac.cn ssxie@iphy.ac.cn and Beijing Key Laboratory for Advanced Functional Materials and Structure Research, Beijing 100190, China and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Qingxia
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China. wyzhou@iphy.ac.cn ssxie@iphy.ac.cn and Beijing Key Laboratory for Advanced Functional Materials and Structure Research, Beijing 100190, China and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China. wyzhou@iphy.ac.cn ssxie@iphy.ac.cn and Beijing Key Laboratory for Advanced Functional Materials and Structure Research, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Le
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China. wyzhou@iphy.ac.cn ssxie@iphy.ac.cn and Beijing Key Laboratory for Advanced Functional Materials and Structure Research, Beijing 100190, China and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Nan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China. wyzhou@iphy.ac.cn ssxie@iphy.ac.cn and Beijing Key Laboratory for Advanced Functional Materials and Structure Research, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Wenbin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China. wyzhou@iphy.ac.cn ssxie@iphy.ac.cn and Beijing Key Laboratory for Advanced Functional Materials and Structure Research, Beijing 100190, China and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Weiya
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China. wyzhou@iphy.ac.cn ssxie@iphy.ac.cn and Beijing Key Laboratory for Advanced Functional Materials and Structure Research, Beijing 100190, China and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Sishen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xie