Elastic material that contracts and relaxes with electrical current

[brettleon123]

I am searching for an type of elastic/rubber that once subjected to electricity contracts and then once released from electricity it relaxs again. is there such thing and if so what. if not is there anything slightly alternative.

 

[torquil]

This reminds me of artificial muscles that are used by people experimenting with robot contruction.

Or is that something completely different that what you are after?

Torquil

 

[brettleon123]

100% spot on is there anything out there?
Brett

 

[gato_]

Mechanical reaction under electric stimulus is termed piezoelectricity. Most of the available piezoelectric materials are ceramic in nature, and as such, brittle. Considerable research is being done on organic piezoelectric materials, which might be usefull for your case. For the moment, getting a flexible piezoelectric material is an open issue, as you can see here:
http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/01/28/scientist-develop-flexible-energy-harvesting-rubber-sheets/
My advice without further details would be using pvdf ( softer, and somehow "printable" in rubber) for small actuation. Here's some link found by searching for flexible piezoelectric pvdf that might match your interest
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/ViewContentServlet?Filename=Published/EmeraldFullTextArticle/Articles/0870210206.html

 

[Dadface]

I think rubber contracts slightly when heated

 

[Andy Resnick]

There's also materials known as electroactive elastomers, electroelastomers, etc:

Electroelastomer rolls and their application for biomimetic walking robots, Qibing Pei, Ron Pelrine, Scott Stanford, Roy Kornbluh and Marcus Rosenthal

Synthetic Metals
Volumes 135-136, 4 April 2003, Pages 129-131
Proceedings of the International Conference on Science and Technology of Synthetic Metals