Conjugated polymer actuators for biomedical applications

Conjugated polymers are electroactive and have found applications as artificial muscles. Actuators that have been developed over the last decade have now reached the early stages of commercialization, particularly for use in biomedical devices. This article reviews the motivation for using this class of actuator, the types of devices that have been fabricated, and some of the biomedical applications that are being developed. Recommendations are presented for future work on understanding the actuation mechanisms, on actuator design, and on the measurement of metrics.