Successfully created 'edible' batteries to run medical devices in the body

Imagine if one day you had an oral tablet that contained a sensor that could evaluate your health and send information over the wireless to your doctor, or a pill that could identify the changes. Change the microbe in your intestines and adjust the dose yourself.

Future medical devices will promise the realization of such applications, but the difficulty is to create a safe source of energy for the body and can provide enough energy for the devices. This.

"For decades, people have imagined that one day, we would have" drinking "devices that could diagnose and cure disease," says chemist Christopher Bettinger. "But if you have to" take medicine "every day, you have to pay attention to the toxicity issue, which is when you need to think of biological materials that can replace mechanical components."

Scientists have developed a battery made of melanin, a naturally occurring pigment in the skin, hair and eyes.

Bettinger and his team at Carnegie Mellon University have taken a big step forward. They developed a battery made of melanin , a type of natural pigment in the skin, hair and eyes. Melanin protects our bodies from free radicals, but they also have the ability to bind and separate metal ions, a chemical reaction important to the function of the battery.

The team has created tablets using melanin and other biocompatible materials such as manganese oxide, copper and iron. They found that the melanin battery could provide power to a 5-millimeter device running for 18 hours.

"The good thing here is that in theory, a self-sustaining device is allowed to remain in the body for no more than 20 hours," says Bettinger.
Batteries are not new, but batteries have not previously been capable of septic, so should be discharged from the body. If used regularly, these batteries can be harmful.

The Carnegie Mellon team is currently working on making batteries made from other self-destructive materials, such as pectin. The next step is to create a safe and edible shell for these batteries.