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Figure 3 | Nano Convergence

Figure 3

From: High performance electrochemical and electrothermal artificial muscles from twist-spun carbon nanotube yarn

Figure 3

Illustration of yarn fabrication methods for torsional and tensile electrochemical CNT muscles. (a) A CNT sheet was pulled from a CNT forest as twist was inserted to provide yarn for the torsional muscles. Inserting twist into stacks of forest-drawn CNT sheets enabled increases in yarn diameter. (b) A Twisted, non-coiled CNT yarn, containing about 12,000 to 15,000 turns/m of inserted twist when a single CNT sheet was used for yarn fabrication. (c) Anode and cathode yarns infiltrated and coated with PVDF-co-HFP based TEA.BF4 solid gel electrolyte. (d) Illustration of a plied, non-coiled yarn muscle with attached paddle for torsional actuation measurements, which had been over coated with the above electrolyte after plying two identical electrolyte-filled CNT yarns. (e) Illustration of the insertion of additional twist to produce yarn coiling, which was deployed to provide the fully coiled yarns used for tensile muscles. (f) Fully-coiled yarn used as both muscle anode and cathode for tensile muscles. (g) Coiled anode and cathode yarns that are infiltrated and coated with PVA-based H2SO4 solid gel electrolyte. (h) Illustration of a plied, coiled yarn muscle with attached weight for tensile actuation measurements, which had been over coated with the above electrolyte after plying [3].

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