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2nd April 2022
11:52am BST
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The slime contains magnetic particles that can be manipulated to travel, rotate, and form various shapes when external magnets are applied. Dubbed “magnetic slime robot”, Zhang said that the robot currently lacks autonomy,
“We still consider it as fundamental research – trying to understand its material properties.” he said, adding that its “visco-elastic properties” means it “sometimes it behaves like a solid, sometimes it behaves like a liquid.”
The slime is made from a polymer called polyvinyl alcohol and borax which is most often used in cleaning products.
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“It’s very much like mixing water with [corn] starch at home,” Zhang said. “When you touch it very quickly it behaves like a solid. When you touch it gently and slowly it behaves like a liquid.”
The researchers have envisioned that one day their slime-bot could have applications in the medical field, specifically, the digestive tract.
“To avoid toxic electrolytes leak[ing] out, we can maybe use this kind of slime robot to do an encapsulation, to form some kind of inert coating,” he explained.
However, there is one drawback, the magnetic particles are toxic themselves. In response, scientists coated the robot in a layer of silica made from sand.
“The safety [would] also strongly depend on how long you would keep them inside of your body,” Zhang said.
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