Help finding a Chemical

Basically ive done research myself looking for a chemical which contracts or shrinks when an electric current passes through it.

Ive spent some time a google and a number of other search engines and have not been able to find such a chemical. Im almost positive such a chemical exists i just may not be looking for it properly ( search wise )

Wanted to know if anyone had knowledge of such a chemical?

Any help would be appreciated.

( if this is not the right forum for this question, please feel free to move it )

Thinking of making a battlemech, eh?

They have come out with one such material, but I believe that it is expensive and does not continue to work indefinitely.

What you want to search on is Artificial Muscle. Carbon Nanotubes are the closest to what you want.

As light as air, yet stronger than steel and bendier than rubber. A new material made from bundles of carbon nanotubes combines all of these characteristics in a substance that twitches like a bionic man's biceps when a voltage is applied.

Try this wikipedia page on Polyvinylidene Fluoride

From the properties section of the article:

Unlike other popular piezoelectric materials, such as PZT, PVDF has a negative d33 value. Physically, this means that PVDF will compress insteadof expand or vice versa when exposed to the same electric field.

Sounds like what you're looking for.

reply to post by Xenophobe


Thank you, that is what i was looking for.

The purpose of looking for this is to apply it in some form to prosthetic limbs.

The purpose of looking for this is to apply it in some form to prosthetic limbs.

Hehe... so the Battlemech comment wasn't too far off!

defcon5 made a good suggestion: try searching for the term "Artificial Muscle" or maybe "Synthetic muscle"

Good luck with your endeavor, it sounds quite interesting and altruistic!

I just found this...
Electroactive Polymers
you might find some more good stuff by going through the links from this wiki page:

Electroactive polymers (EAPs) are touted as the basis for future artificial muscles. EAPs can be deformed repetitively by applying external voltage across the EAP, and they can quickly recover their original configuration upon reversing the polarity of the applied voltage. To explore the potential use of EAP’s as artificial muscles, a brief evaluation is presented of an ionic-based EAP composite as a candidate artificial muscle material. The electromechanical properties of the EAP under dry and moist conditions are presented along with the EAP’s performance under load conditions. AS shown through a series of simple tests, the EAP has a high load bearing capacity to mass ratio, short response time, and nearly linear deformation response with respect to applied voltage.