code: def split_channels(image):
      
      inpixeltype = image.pixeltype
      dimension = image.dimension
      components = 1
  
      libfn = utils.get_lib_fn('splitChannels%s' % image._libsuffix)
      itkimages = libfn(image.pointer)
      antsimages = [iio.ANTsImage(pixeltype=inpixeltype, dimension=dimension, 
                                components=components, pointer=itkimage) for itkimage in itkimages]
      return antsimages
docs: Split channels of a multi-channel ANTsImage into a collection
      of scalar ANTsImage types
      
      Arguments
      ---------
      image : ANTsImage
          multi-channel image to split
  
      Returns
      -------
      list of ANTsImage types
  
      Example
      -------
      >>> import ants
      >>> image = ants.image_read(ants.get_ants_data('r16'), 'float')
      >>> image2 = ants.image_read(ants.get_ants_data('r16'), 'float')
      >>> imagemerge = ants.merge_channels([image,image2])
      >>> imagemerge.components == 2
      >>> images_unmerged = ants.split_channels(imagemerge)
      >>> len(images_unmerged) == 2
      >>> images_unmerged[0].components == 1