Using human microorganisms to generate electricity by itself, the popularity of wearable devices goes further

For a long time, one of the main factors restricting the development of the human wearable device industry is battery technology, especially for some implantable wearable devices, if it is to be miniaturized, one of the problems that must be faced is energy storage. , that is, the miniaturization of the power supply system.

And new research from the University of Amherst demonstrates a biofilm that uses the corpses of dead bacteria to generate electricity from sweat, and it harvests electricity as efficiently as a battery. The current technique builds on previous research on a particular strain called Geobacter sulfurreducens.

The microbe, also known as electricigens, is one of several that has been shown to be capable of producing electricity under certain conditions, including during the evaporation of human sweat. This makes it an ideal candidate for use in biofilms that can stick to the skin to harvest usable electricity for wearable electronics through the evaporation of sweat.

The difficulty encountered by this technology is that to maintain continuous electrical energy conversion, the human body needs to be able to continuously excrete some sweat. And our body is not able to excrete enough sweat all the time, especially in the cold season. Although the Amherst team found that G. sulfurreducens does not need to be alive to generate electricity, it is a real difficulty to obtain sweat on a regular basis in the human body.

Of course, this technology can also be used to remind us that we need to exercise at a specific time, and to obtain sweat through exercise to maintain charging.

And this latest study, the latest experiment, shows that the biofilm skin patch can maintain performance for at least 18 hours and can power strain sensors that measure pulse, respiration and other body signals. In laboratory tests, these biofilms showed similar performance on day 35 of testing as on day 1.

It can be said that the discovery of this technology will, to a large extent, bring about a huge revolution in implantable wearable medical devices, and will promote the development of the implantable wearable medical device industry.