Electricity-producing slime could power floors, shoes and more

University of Guelph (U of G) researchers have developed a slime-like material that produces electricity when compressed. When the team studied their prototype using the Canadian Light Source (CLS) at the University of Saskatchewan, they discovered the material has an array of potential applications.

If installed in floors, it could produce clean energy when people walk on it. If incorporated into a shoe insole, it could be used to analyze your gait. In theory, says lead researcher Erica Pensini, their material could even be used as the basis for a synthetic skin to train robots to know how much pressure to use when checking the pulse of a patient.

“The synchrotron is like a super-microscope,” says Pensini. “It allowed us to see that if you apply an electric field, you can change the crystalline structure of this material.”

Pensini, an associate professor at U of G, and colleagues, found that the “slime” could form different structures at the microscopic level so that it either arranged itself like a sponge, formed layers like a lasagna, or took on a hexagonal form. Pensini conducted the work in collaboration with U of G professors Alejandro G. Marangoni, Aicheng Chen, and Stefano Gregori. Their findings are published in the Journal of Molecular Liquids.

This property, explains Pensini, could offer an opportunity for the targeted delivery of medicine within the body. “Imagine you have the material take an initial structure that contains a pharmaceutical substance and then, when an electric field is applied to it, the structure changes to release the medicine.”

The team’s prototype is composed of natural materials that are highly compatible with the body. It is 90% water plus oleic acid (found in olive oil) and amino acids (the building blocks of protein in the body). “I wanted to make something that is 100% benign and that I would put on my skin without any concerns,” she says.

The material could also be used to make bandages that actively promote healing. “Our bodies produce small electric fields to attract healing cells to an open wound,” says Pensini. “By creating a bandage that increases this electric field, healing could theoretically happen faster. In this case, the bandage would be activated by our natural movements and breathing.”

Pensini is excited about the potential uses for their “slime.” In the meantime, she plans to use it as a salve for her hands after rock climbing. “I need an initial guinea pig, so it might as well be me, right?”