Swallowing batteries is generally not a good idea, but ingestible medical electronic devices often contain batteries. of they. A new type of battery, made entirely of edible materials, could make such devices safer to use.
An experimental edible battery was developed at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT-Italian Institute of Technology) by a team led by senior researcher Mario Caironi. It is inspired by the biochemical redox reactions that produce energy in the cells of humans and all other animals.
The battery’s positive electrode is composed of riboflavin (also known as vitamin B2), and its negative electrode is composed of quercetin. Both substances are found naturally in various plants and other foods. Activated carbon is additionally used to increase conductivity.
The electrolyte is water-based and the separator (a permeable membrane that prevents short circuits between the anode and cathode) is made of seaweed, commonly used in sushi. Finally, two food-grade gold foil contacts protrude from the anode and cathode beeswax coatings.
Once fully charged, a 0.65 volt battery can deliver 48 microamps of current for 12 minutes, or just a few microamps for over an hour. That may not sound like much, but it’s reportedly enough to power small electronics such as low-power LEDs.
“Potential future applications range from edible circuits and sensors that can monitor health conditions to powering sensors to monitor food storage conditions,” said Caironi. “Additionally, given the safety level of these batteries, they can be used in children’s toys where there is a high risk of swallowing.In fact, we are already developing devices with higher capacity and smaller overall size. I have.”
The study is described in a paper recently published in the journal. advanced materialsScientists at Carnegie Mellon University previously developed a unique edible battery that utilizes the melanin pigment that occurs naturally in human skin, hair and eyes.
Source: Italian Institute of Technology
