Carbon nanotube photo-thermo-mechanical actuator

Carbon nanotubes show a remarkable tendency for direct (rapid) temperature increase of the order of hundreds of degrees when exposed to near infra-red light. The reason is local confinement of the heat wave in their 1D structure which generates rapid temperature rise. Here we demonstrate that these high temperatures can be exploited to generate large deformation and force output by anchoring the nanotubes to a substrate. We report energy density (i.e., work done per unit mass) of the nanotube actuator as approximately 4268 J/Kg which is significantly larger than piezoceramic (approximately 4.25 J/Kg), magnetostrictive (approximately 21.6 J/Kg), lead-zinc-niobate/lead-titanate single-crystals (approximately 131 J/Kg), polyvinylidene fluoride trifluoro-ethylene copolymers (approximately 160 J/Kg) and shape memory alloys (approximately 1337 J/Kg).