New gel may make good muscle Mallory Womer, Staff Writer

A team of Pitt researchers… New gel may make good muscle Mallory Womer, Staff Writer

A team of Pitt researchers created the first simulation of a pulsing gel that may one day lead to the technology needed to create artificial muscles.

Anna Balazs, distinguished professor and Robert von der Luft, professor, of the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering as well as Victor Yashin, a postdoctoral student in the department, performed the research.

The results of their experiments that allowed them to study the large-scale shape changes in these pulsating gels were published in the most recent issue of Science, a prestigious scientific journal.

Within these pulsating gels is a lattice-like net of cross bridges that respond to changes in temperature, the liquid that it is dissolved in, and many other factors.

Yashin became interested in researching oscillating gels after reading a paper about research conducted by a Japanese group on the topic. The group discovered a polymer network that, when under ideal conditions, pulsates.

“This modeling will help experimentally to create miniature devices for artificial muscles,” Yashin said. “We are still a long way to these devices. The technology is not there yet. For that we need to talk to the technologists.”