The Innovators Under 35 is a peer-reviewed annual award and listicle published by MIT Technology Review magazine, naming the world's top 35 innovators under the age of 35. This year’s innovators were selected in the field of material science, biotechnology, robotics, and climate/energy from hundreds of nominees by expert judges and our editorial staff, including our muscle fibers for wearable assitive devices.

The goal of this project is to showcase the transformative value of chemistry and to inform the general public about the potential of the chemical sciences to foster the well-being of society and the sustainability of our planet. The selection of 2023 Fianlist were announced including our 'Artificial muscle' project.

We report on mammalian-skeletal-muscle-inspired fibers with large and strong contractive actuation. A dynamic percolation of fillers within the matrix not only enables the electrical monitoring of actuation but also selectively reinforces the mechanical properties during substantial contraction. These fibers were readily integrated into robust bundles and high-power soft robotics, demonstrating their potential as components for next-generation robotics.

We present a reinforcement of concurrent mechanical and electrical properties in graphene-based fibers inspired by mussels adhesives. This involves a two-step polydopamine treatment, combined with the conventional wet-spinning for defect engineering of fiber structure. The effectiveness of this enhancement is proved through the direct analysis of interfacial adhesion between graphene oxide sheets using the atomic force microscopy pull-off test.

We introduce ultrafast photothermal treatment of graphene oxide fibers using a Xenon flash lamp, resulting in Janus-like heteroreduced graphene fibers. These fibers can balance electrical conductivity and mechanical strength in an optimal manner as desired. Highly sensitive humidity sensors were fabricated from the flash reduced fibers, demonstrating superior properties compared to the thermally reduced counterparts.

We demonstrated a magnet with a large energy product using SmCo5/Co nanocomposite. A combined process of thermal decomposition and reduction/diffusion process was employed to fabricate a 3D composite from colloidal magnetic nanoparticles. The alternating arrangement exhibited a maxizied energy product, attributed to magnetic spin exchange interactions.