A few days ago we talked of the first edible battery in the world, created at the Italian Institute of Technology in Milan.
The IIT is certainly not the only institution to study the potential of these batteries; in fact, Small magazine recently published the study by the University of Binghamton “Tiny biobattery with potential 100-year shelf life runs on bacteria”.
The new research builds on the conclusions reached over the years by Professor Seokheun “Sean” Choi of the faculty of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering at the Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science and its bioelectronics and microsystems laboratory, related to studies on a future battery that can be ingested and activated by the pH of the human intestine.
Choi and his team have started this journey in 2016coming to write and publish several papers about it.
The last:
“Electrogenic Bacteria Promise New Opportunities for Powering, Sensing, and Synthesizing” – 2022
Now, Choi and PhD student Maryam Rezaie they took advantage of what they had learned so far and moved on to the next stepthat is to say “to take the ingestible battery out of the human body”.
The details of the various components: the MFC with a vertical configuration (a) and its stack (b). Images of the assembled MFC/MFC package and their individual components (c) courtesy of Small and Binghamton University
The recent study shows the results of using spore-forming bacteria [simili a quelli utilizzati nella precedente versione ingeribile] per create a device that would potentially still work after 100 years.
“The overall goal is to develop a microbial fuel cell that can be stored for a relatively long period without degradation of biocatalytic activity and that can also be rapidly activated by absorbing moisture from the air.”Choi said, before continuing:
“We wanted to make these biobatteries for portable, storable, on-demand power generation capabilities, but the question is, how do we provide long-term storage of the bacteria until it is needed? And if that is possible, how would you provide the on-demand battery activation for quick and easy power generation? And how would you improve the power?”
The solution identified by the team is been sealing the cell [delle dimensioni di una monetina] with a piece of Kapton tapea material capable of withstanding temperatures from -500 to 750 degrees Fahrenheit [all’incirca da -295,556 a 399 gradi Celsius].
When the tape has been removed and moisture has entered, the bacteria mixed with a chemical germinant that encouraged them to produce spores.
The reaction has generated enough energy to power an LED, digital thermometer or small clock.
The heat increase of bacterial spores reduced the time interval in which the device could emit maximum power from 1 hour to 20 minutesWhile increased humidity has led to increased electrical production.
After a week of storage at room temperature, tests conducted by the team verified that the drop in energy production amounted to 2%.
Team morale is quite high and encouraged by the results obtainedbut Choi stressed the need to get to faster ignition and higher voltage productionif you aim to make this battery a valid alternative to the traditional ones.