A new study by Taiwanese scientists has discovered that gold-plated onion cells can be used to make artificial muscles, the Los Angeles Times reported on Wednesday.
The results were achieved by a research team led by Shih Wen-pin (施文彬), a professor at National Taiwan University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, and have been unveiled in Applied Physics Letters, a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal that is published by the American Institute of Physics.
Prior to the study, researchers had been trying to make artificial muscles with various types of polymers that could contract or expand, but found none that could also bend at the same time, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The first onion muscle prototypes were created from the thin, translucent layer of epidermal cells that lie just below the outer skin of an onion, the paper said.
If these cells are freeze-dried, coated in gold and hooked up to an electric current, they will contract or elongate depending on how much voltage is used, the article said.
As the cells contract or elongate, the entire length of cells bends, the report said.
“Gold electrodes and onion muscles are both biocompatible, so this work could be applied for biomedical manipulations,” Shih was quoted as saying in the article.
Shih told the newspaper that such artificial muscles could eventually be bundled for use in robots.
Chen Chien-chun (陳建君), a key member of the research team, told the Central News Agency that the idea of using onion cells to make artificial muscles came to him during his junior-high school years when he was examining onion cells under a microscope.
However, Chen said he does not like the flavor of onions and avoids eating them.
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