Succeeded in creating a new type of artificial muscle from onion skin

ByHafiz Issadeen

National Taiwan UniversityThe research team succeeded in developing artificial muscles that can contract or expand by applying voltage. What becomes the material of this artificial muscle is how "Onion peel"apparently.

Onion artificial muscles
http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/apl/106/18/10.1063/1.4917498


This new artificial muscle is made from gold-plated onion skin | The Verge
http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/5/8551715/artificial-muscle-onion-skin-soft-robotics

Researchers at National Taiwan University released a new artificial muscle development method that is completely different from conventional artificial muscle technology and uses onion peel. Artificial muscle made of onion skin is said to be able to contract and stretch due to the unique cellular structure of onion, possibly making it very meaningful for robot engineering and healthcare fields It is said that there is. Researchers have similar structuresPolymerIt seems that he tried to make with polymer (polymer), but the onion seems to be a much cheaper and a wonderful alternative.

Wen Ping-Si, an engineer who is participating in the project to create artificial muscle from onion said, "Artificial muscles made from onion skin can perform elongation and contraction simultaneously as human muscles , It was impossible to perform different actions such as "elongation" and "contraction" at the same time in the artificial muscle so far, "he talks about the advantages of the artificial muscle created in the project.

ByLin Mei

Thin film layers underneath the skin covering the outermost side of the onion are used to create artificial muscles. This very thin, slender film has the characteristic that it is stretchy and sensitive to electricity like animal muscles. These characteristics are the characteristics that occur because the cells in the thin film part have a unique lattice structure.


When producing artificial muscle, firstly freeze-dry the thin film of onion and remove moisture from inside. Next, in order to increase the stretchability of the thin film, immerse the thin film in dilute sulfuric acid. Then attaching a layer of gold on the thin film surface of the onion and attaching electrodes to it, you will be able to install equipment to operate the machine tool on the basic characteristics of the onion.


The artificial muscle created can be expanded by applying low voltage and contracted by applying high voltage.


In research, we have successfully picked up small cotton balls using two artificial muscles made from onion. However, at the present time the artificial muscle is lifted at once, but the weight is about 2 milligrams. Meanwhile, Mr. Se says that the next step is to augment the power of the artificial muscle and lower the working voltage.


A research team at the National Taiwan University said, "We do not yet fully understand the cell walls and their characteristics, the content of the presentation is to open up the ideas we have discovered so far" The announcement is a progress report to the last, and it says that the research did not reach the goal.

In the current technology, although the artificial muscle is limited to realizing one of functions such as elongation, contraction, and rotation, one day it will become possible to realize three functions with one artificial muscle, the engineer It seems to believe it, there are possibilities of artificial muscles made from the onion skin, realizing it, expectation for further research will take.