The battery that recharges and can also be eaten
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You use it, you recharge it, and… you eat it. This is what can be done with a new battery model just developed by a group of experts from Printed and molecular electronics laboratory atItalian Institute of Technology of Milan, coordinated by Mario Caironi: a rechargeable device and above all, precisely, completely edible, as it is built from materials that are normally consumed at the table. The battery, the details of which are told on the pages of the magazine Advanced Materialscould be used, according to the authors of the work, in the field of food quality monitoring, human health diagnostic tools and edible robots of the future.
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To fine-tune the battery, Caironi’s group used the riboflavinalso known as vitamin B2, and the quercetin, a substance present in almonds and capers, which act respectively as anode and cathode, the two “poles” of the device. It was then also used del Activated carbon to increase the electrical conductivity and of water as an electrolyte. Finally, the separator – i.e. the component necessary to avoid short circuits – was made with nori seaweed, an ingredient used, among other things, in the preparation of sushi. Finally, to garnish and encapsulate everything, there is beeswax, from which two edible gold contacts emerge, the one used by pastry chefs to decorate cakes and desserts.
The battery operates at a voltage of 0.65 V, completely harmless to the human body, and can supply a current of 48 μA for 12 minutes, or a few microamperes for more than an hour, sufficient to power small electronic devices, such as low power LEDs.
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“This edible battery,” he commented Ivan Ilicone of the authors of the study, “is very interesting, for example, for those who study and design energy accumulators. The construction of safer batteries, without the use of toxic materials, is a challenge we must face: even if these batteries won’t power electric cars, they are proof that making power sources out of safer materials than current lithium-ion batteries is possible, so we believe they will inspire other scientists to build batteries for a truly sustainable future.”
“The potential future uses”, adds Caironi, “include edible circuits and sensors, capable of monitoring the health conditions but also the state of conservation of food. Furthermore, given the high level of safety of these batteries, these technologies could also be used in the field of toys for younger children, where the risk of ingestion is high. In fact, we are already developing devices with greater capacity and smaller dimensions”.
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