Succeeded in the development of "biodegradable small battery" which is innocuous, innocuous to the human body

Such as smart watchWearable devices are getting big attentionAs the ultimate wearable device, "body robot" which checks the health condition inside the body is mentioned and it is expected to realize someday. At that time, a big problem is the battery that drives the robot. Currently, since lithium ion batteries used as the main battery of hardware are harmful to the human body, development of new batteries is indispensable because it is unlikely to be used in applications of internal robots. It might be applicable to batteries for such internal robots "Biodegradable battery"Was developed.

Materials, Designs, and Operational Characteristics for Fully Biodegradable Primary Batteries - Yin - 2014 - Advanced Materials - Wiley Online Library
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.201306304/abstract

Biodegradable battery could melt inside the body: Nature News & amp; Comment
http://www.nature.com/news/biodegradable-battery-could-melt-inside-the-body-1.14919

Battery that dissolves in the body could power embedded health sensors | The Verge
http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/25/5547344/biodegradable-battery-could-power-medical-sensors

A research team at the University of Illinois successfully developed a biodegradable battery that decomposes naturally in the body and the resultsAdvanced MaterialsIt is announced in.

In 2012, Dr. John Rogers, a material scientist at the University of Illinois University, succeeded in developing biodegradable silicon chips that can monitor the temperature and mechanical load in the body and wirelessly communicate to the outside. However, this chipElectromagnetic induction, It was necessary to transmit power from the outside, so there was a problem with using it as an internal robot.

Therefore, Dr. Rogers and his research team, who began developing biodegradable batteries, recently developed a battery using magnesium foil for the anode, iron, molybdenum, tungsten for the cathode and phosphate buffered saline as the electrolyte between the electrodes Has been developed. Alloys used in batteries do not harm the living body as long as the ion concentration is kept low, and biodegradable polymers are used for containers that make up batteries, even if dissolved in the body harmless materials are used It is said that.


In the experiment, the battery succeeded in maintaining the output of about 0.45 to 0.75 Volt voltage for more than 24 hours, causing the LED bulb to emit light. Furthermore, this battery was designed to be serializable by lamination, it was immersed in physiological saline at 98.6 degrees F (37 degrees C), where the laminated structure diverged in 11 days, further fell to 185 degrees F (85 degrees C ), It was totally decomposed in 8 days and dissolved in an aqueous solution.


The battery produced this time is not so large output, the stacked state of thickness 4 mm · 3 cm × 1.3 cm is quite large for use inside the body, but Dr. Rogers said " By making the surface treatment more complicated, it is possible to realize batteries with smaller and larger output. "In the futureDrug delivery systemWe can expect to realize a biodegradable battery that can be used in the future.