Scientists have designed a tiny fuel cell that generates electricity from the human body’s blood flow, and for the first time, they have tested the device in a person.Also at ChemistryWorld:
Phones, tablets and other portable electronics are common, but development of equally portable power sources is lagging behind. This is a particular concern for biomedical devices such as pacemakers. Since the 1960s, researchers have made biocompatible fuel cells that generate power inside the body. However, none of these power sources has been successfully demonstrated in a human subject.
Now, Sergey Shleev and his team at Malmö University, Sweden, have done just that: They connected an artificial vein containing a miniaturised fuel cell to a team member’s arm vein and powered a low voltage display with the electricity generated from the blood flow.
The fuel cell consists of graphite electrodes, one coated with cellobiose dehydrogenase and the other with bilirubin oxidase. These enzymes generate power via redox reactions, using the glucose and oxygen in blood....MORE
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