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US 12,473,896 B2Granted
Thermally-powered polymer fiber actuators and articles including same
AssigneeBoard of Regents, The University of Texas System
InventorsNa Li, Carter S. Haines, Marcio D. Lima, Monica Jung DeAndrade, Shaoli Fang, Jiyoung Oh, Mikhail E. Kozlov, Dongseok Suh, Ray H. Baughman
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Abstract
Actuators (artificial muscles) comprising twisted polymer fibers generate actuation when powered thermally. In some embodiments, the thermally-powered polymer fiber actuator can be incorporated into an article, such as a textile or garment.
Claims13
A thermally-powered polymer fiber actuator comprising a twisted polymer fiber or yarn, wherein
- (a) the thermally-powered polymer fiber actuator has a first length at a first temperature;
- (b) the thermally-powered polymer fiber actuator has a second length at a second temperature;
- (c) the first length and the second length are different in length by at least 5%;
- (d) the thermally-powered polymer fiber actuator is operable to reversibly actuate;
- and
- (e) the thermally-powered polymer fiber actuator is a thermally-powered, non-electrochemically-powered, and non-electroactively-powered, polymer fiber actuator.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.