Artificial muscles Can Generate Electricity to Charge an iPhone

Combining breakthroughs in self-healing materials and artificial arms, University of California, Los Angeles researchers created such muscles that can generate electricity. The research could be used to make walking robots and develop better prosthetics that juice your iPod. Part of the technology is already being used in Japan to charge batteries using ocean waves.

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.

The researchers used flexible carbon nanotubes as electrodes instead of metal-based films that fail after repeated use. If an area of the carbon nanotube fails, the region around it seals itself by becoming non-conductive preventing the fault from spreading to other areas.

This muscle conserves about 70 percent of the energy you put into it.