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Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

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Scientists Control The Motion Of Hair-Thin Carbon Fibers For The First Time

 Controlling objects that are thinner than a human hair is one of the toughest challenges in modern science and engineering. These tiny fibers—called microfibers—are extremely light, flexible, and fragile. Even a small force can damage them or move them in an unpredictable way. For years, scientists have searched for reliable methods to control their motion precisely and reversibly.

Now, an interdisciplinary team of researchers from the Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences has taken a major step forward. They have demonstrated a new way to control the shape and movement of carbon microfibers using electricity—without even directly wiring them. This discovery opens exciting possibilities for micromechanics, smart materials, and soft robotics.

Their findings, published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications, show for the first time that pristine (uncoated) carbon fibers can act as tiny, electrically driven actuators thanks to asymmetric electrochemical processes occurring within the material itself.

From Microfibers to Smart Materials

Just a few decades ago, producing fibers thinner than a human hair in a controlled way was considered extremely difficult. Scientists lacked both the tools to fabricate such tiny structures and the instruments to observe them clearly. The situation changed dramatically with the development of advanced microscopes and nanoscale research techniques.

As a result, miniaturization accelerated. Today, researchers can create microfibers and even nanofibers from a wide range of materials, including polymers, metals, and carbon-based structures.

At the same time, materials engineering gave rise to a new class of substances known as smart materials. These materials can change their properties—such as shape, color, stiffness, or conductivity—when exposed to external stimuli like electricity, light, heat, or changes in pH. Smart polymers, for example, are widely used in sensors, medical devices, textiles, and drug delivery systems.

A key advantage of smart materials is reversibility: once the external stimulus is removed, the material can return to its original state. This ability makes them ideal for applications where repeated motion or switching is required.

Why Smart Fibers Are Still a Challenge

Despite major progress, smart fiber technology still faces serious limitations. Many microfibers and nanofibers need special coatings or chemical modifications to respond to external stimuli in a predictable way. These extra steps make fabrication complex, expensive, and sometimes unreliable.

In applications such as artificial muscles, microelectromechanical systems, or targeted drug delivery, precise control of fiber motion is essential. However, achieving controlled bending, straightening, or twisting of a single microfiber remains difficult—especially without damaging the fiber or permanently changing its structure.

This is where the new research from Warsaw stands out. Instead of modifying the fibers, the scientists showed that bare carbon fibers, exactly as they are, can be controlled using electricity alone.

Why Carbon Fibers?

Carbon fibers are already famous for their exceptional mechanical properties. They are incredibly strong yet very lightweight—much stronger than steel by weight and far lighter than aluminum. This is why they are widely used in aerospace, automotive industries, sports equipment, and advanced composites.

But carbon fibers also have excellent electrical properties. They can conduct electricity and interact with ions in an electrochemical environment. This combination of mechanical strength and electrical activity makes them ideal candidates for microscopic actuators—devices that convert energy into motion.

How the Electrochemical Control Works

The key innovation in this research lies in the use of a bipolar electrochemical cell. This type of setup has been known since the 1970s and has been used in areas such as biosensing, batteries, and electrochemical reactors.

In the experiment, a single carbon fiber with a micrometer-scale diameter was placed inside this electrochemical system. The researchers compared two kinds of fibers:

  • Smooth carbon fibers

  • Asymmetrically rough carbon fibers

The electrolyte solution contained lithium ions (Li⁺) and perchlorate ions (ClO₄⁻), along with a redox couple made of benzoquinone and hydroquinone.

When an external voltage was applied, ions began to move into and out of the fiber surface. In smooth fibers, this process happened evenly, producing little or no motion. But in rough fibers, the surface had an uneven pore distribution. This natural asymmetry caused ions to insert unevenly along the fiber.

Bending, Straightening, and Reversibility

Because the ion insertion was asymmetric, one side of the fiber expanded more than the other. This difference in expansion created internal stress, causing the fiber to bend. When the voltage was reversed, the ions were expelled from the surface, and the fiber straightened again.

In simple terms:

  • Voltage on → ions move in → fiber bends

  • Voltage off or reversed → ions move out → fiber straightens

Most importantly, this motion was fully reversible and repeatable.

Wireless Actuation: A Major Advantage

One of the most exciting aspects of this discovery is that the fibers do not need to be directly connected to electrical wires. According to Wojciech Nogala, the team successfully used a closed bipolar cell to achieve wireless electrochemical actuation.

Because oxidation reactions occur at one end of the fiber and reduction reactions at the other, motion is generated without physical electrical contacts. This makes the system simpler, more robust, and easier to integrate into tiny devices.

The amount of movement depends on factors such as:

  • The applied voltage

  • The length of the fiber

  • The duration of voltage pulses

By carefully controlling these parameters, the researchers were able to make the fiber move up and down repeatedly—similar to microscopic tweezers.

Future Applications and Impact

This breakthrough opens the door to a wide range of future technologies. Arrays of such fibers could act as microactuators in miniaturized devices. Potential applications include:

  • Soft microrobots with muscle-like movements

  • Synthetic muscles for biomedical devices

  • Microscale gripping and manipulation tools

  • Precise control of materials in lab-on-a-chip systems

Because the fibers are pristine and require no special coatings, large-scale fabrication becomes much more practical.

A Small Fiber, A Big Step Forward

By showing that hair-thin carbon fibers can be controlled precisely using electricity alone, this research represents a significant leap in materials science and micromechanics. It demonstrates how naturally occurring asymmetries in materials can be harnessed rather than engineered artificially.

As scientists continue to explore and refine this approach, we may soon see a new generation of smart, responsive systems—powered by electricity, guided wirelessly, and built from fibers thinner than a strand of hair.

Reference: Gupta, B., Shrivastav, V., Sundriyal, S. et al. Bipolar electrochemical tweezers using pristine carbon fibers with intrinsically asymmetric features. Nat Commun 16, 10061 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-65036-z

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