At University of Texas Nanotech Institute, Scientists have created an artificial muscle that runs on alcohol and has the ability to generate strong forces in a short period of time. These muscles use chemical fuels instead of battery energy. The muscles use methanol, which has 30 times the energy storing capacity of a conventional battery. The nickel-titanum alloy coated in platinum particles, which are only nanometers wide, can generate 500 times more force than natural muscles of the same diameter. Currently, there are problems such as the time required to cool off the muscle faces, or the dislocation of the nanoparticles due to motion generated, which are being resolved be the team. The implications are huge of course. They range from using these in prosthetic limbs, to robots which can do any task required with much more efficiency than a human, or the exoskeletons. Another benefit of this type of muscle is the duration of operation, which would be much longer than the robots currently operating with the battery electrical energy.

Reference: www.livescience.com/technology/090809-pi-booze-muscles.html

  alcohol, chemical fuel, muscle