In brief
Researchers from Fudan University in China have developed a way to
harness electricity from your bloodstream. The process involves
nanpscale carbon fibers and could lead to self-powered medical devices.
Inner space hydropower
It’s a truly modern experience: losing battery power on your mobile
device and searching desperately for a source of electricity. But what
if that source was flowing through your veins? A team of researchers are
looking to harness that power from within our own bodies, using power generators inside the bloodstream.
The team from Fudan University in China
has developed a lightweight power generator that can convert flowing
blood in vessels into power. This is made possible by a fiber made of
carbon nanotubes, which are electroactive. In tests, this thread of
fibers, called a “fiber-shaped fluidic nanogenerator” (FFNG), is
attached to electrodes and immersed in a solution to imitate the
bloodstream. According to the researchers, “The electricity was derived
from the relative movement between the FFNG and the solution.”
The researchers were inspired by the concept behind hydropower,
which uses flowing water or steam to turn a turbine and generate
electricity. Like hydropower, blood-based electricity would be a source
of renewable electricity not dependent on the weather, as solar and wind
energy are.
Blood power
The researchers stated that their method was able to harness twenty
percent of the energy generated from a test with a saline solution, a
far more efficient result than previous models.