Carbon nanotube 'muscles' could aid drug delivery

The development could lead to the realisation of a propulsion system for nanorobots that can deliver drugs or remove parasites.

Using yarns of carbon nanotubes, the researchers developed artificial muscles that can rotate 250° per millimetre of muscle length.

This is claimed to be more than 1,000 times that of available artificial muscles, composed of either shape-memory alloys, conducting organic polymers; or ferroelectrics, a class of materials that can hold positive and negative electric charges even in the absence of voltage.

In a statement, associate Prof John Madden, of the UBC Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, said: ‘What’s amazing is that these barely visible yarns composed of fibres 10,000 times thinner than a human hair can move and rapidly rotate objects 2,000 times their own weight.

‘This new generation of artificial muscles — which are simple and inexpensive to make — could be used to make tiny valves, positioners, pumps, stirrers and flagella for use in drug discovery, precision assembly and perhaps even to propel tiny objects inside the bloodstream.’