While natural muscles of our body cannot generate electricity to charge iphones but an artificial muscle developed by researchers in California could heal itself and generate electricity that could be used to charge iphones. The research is meant to develop walking robots and develop better prosthetics.
Artificial muscles that are currently prevalent are made of metal-based film that often tears resulting in muscle failure. The new artificial muscle developed by the University of California researchers is made of carbon nanotubes as electrodes. The carbon nanotube seals the region around it once it fails preventing the fault from spreading to other regions.
This artificial muscle functions like human muscles and expands more than 200 percent when electricity is applied to it. As the materials of the artificial muscle contracts after expansion, the rearranging carbon nanotubes generate a small amount of electricity that can be captures and could be used for charging another device. Even if this artificial muscle were pierced with pins, it would not fail operating. This self-healing muscle is energy efficient conserving 70 percent of the energy that is applied to it.
Source: Trend Hunter
