Some of the research projects that have been tackled at the Canadian Light Source synchrotron on the USask campus include a new type of battery, making solar cells more weatherproof, and advancing hydrogen as a replacement for carbon fuels.

Another is a University of Guelph project, where researchers are studying a slime-like material that produces electricity when squeezed.  Lead researcher, Erica Pensini, explains that there could be many applications for this material. It could be used to help heal wounds, or as an electricity conductor or a motion sensor. Pensini gives the example of putting the material in your shoe and then being able to analyze your gait.

She adds that when it comes to healing wounds, for example if you cut your skin, immediately the body generates an electric field to help in the healing process, so she suggests this slime-like material could enhance that healing by adding more electricity. Another possible use could be installing it in floors, which could then produce clean energy when people walk on it.

Pensini says the CLS was used to see what happens at an ultra-microscopic level when you apply an electric field. They discovered that you could change the crystalline structure of the material. Pensini believes this could be an opportunity for the targeted delivery of medicine within the body. She says, “Imagine you have the natural 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 slime-like material is 90 per cent water and the rest is oleic acid which is found in olive oil, and amino acids which are the building blocks of protein in the body.