{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,22]],"date-time":"2026-01-22T20:40:14Z","timestamp":1769114414495,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":43,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,26]],"date-time":"2024-07-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1721952000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Toyota Motor Engineering &amp; Manufacturing North America"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Biomimetics"],"abstract":"<jats:p>This study investigates the performance enhancement of mandrel-coiled twisted and coiled polymer fibers with a nichrome heater (TCPFLNR) by coating with a solution of graphene\u2013mesoporous carbon\u2013nickel\u2013polyvinyl alcohol. The coating process involved a one-pot synthesis utilizing graphene powder, Ni nanoparticles, mesoporous carbon, and PVA as a binding agent. The coating was performed by manually shaking the TCPFLNR and the subsequent annealing process, which results in improved thermal conductivity and actuation behavior of the TCPFLNR. Experimental results on a 60 mm long actuator demonstrated significant enhancements in actuation displacement and actuation strain (20% to 42%) under various loads with an input current of 0.27 A\/power 2.16 W. The blocked stress is ~10 MPa under this 2.16 W power input and the maximum strain is 48% at optimum load of 1.4 MPa. The observed actuation strain correlated directly with the input power. The coated TCPFLNR exhibited better thermal contacts, facilitating enhanced heat transfer, and reducing power consumption by 6% to 9% compared to non-coated actuators. It was found that the nanomaterial coating helps the TCP actuator to be reliable for more than 75,000 actuation cycles at 0.1 Hz in air due to improved thermal conductivity. These findings highlight the potential for further research to optimize electrothermally operated TCP actuators and unlock advancements in this field.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/biomimetics9080458","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,26]],"date-time":"2024-07-26T09:22:42Z","timestamp":1721985762000},"page":"458","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Fabrication and Characterization of Graphene\u2013Mesoporous Carbon\u2013Nickel\u2013Poly(Vinyl Alcohol)-Coated Mandrel-Coiled TCPFLNR Artificial Muscle"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"9","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1179-7572","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Pawandeep Singh","family":"Matharu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Humanoid, Biorobotics and Smart Systems (HBS Lab), Mechanical Engineering Department, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX 75080, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6407-412X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yuyang","family":"Song","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Toyota Research Institute of North America, 1555 Woodridge Ave, Ann Arbor, MI 48105, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1162-5279","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Umesh","family":"Gandhi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Toyota Research Institute of North America, 1555 Woodridge Ave, Ann Arbor, MI 48105, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6606-7089","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yonas","family":"Tadesse","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Humanoid, Biorobotics and Smart Systems (HBS Lab), Mechanical Engineering Department, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX 75080, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,26]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1800477","DOI":"10.1002\/admt.201800477","article-title":"Soft-matter engineering for soft robotics","volume":"4","author":"Majidi","year":"2019","journal-title":"Adv. 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