Artificial muscles based on nematic gels

Abstract Mechano‐chemical conversion through the swelling of polymer gels suffers from several limitations, as far as the artificial muscles applications are concerned: mechanical response is too slow and strong local stress damages the sample. We propose a different approach to bypass these difficulties: artificial muscles based on nematic gels. When the temperature is lowered below the nematic clearing point, strong uniaxial deformations occur. The estimated shape relaxation time is well within actual muscle contraction times.