New thin batteries, protect the environment and work by ... saliva

Researchers at Binghamton University, New York State University have successfully developed a new battery activated with saliva, superior to normal batteries.

1. Ultra-powerful mini flashlights can burn paper and cook food
2. Startled with the harmful effects of solar cells on the environment
3. Ships traveling around the world for 6 years do not need fuel

This new battery can be used in harsh conditions where normal batteries do not work. This is an outstanding development in the microbial fuel cell industry (MFCs).

Photo: Binghamton University

Developing countries have a very high demand for mini power, especially for on-site diagnostic applications that require only a few minutes of microwatt supply. Meanwhile commercial batteries or other energy collection technologies are too expensive and pollute the environment.

Realizing that, Associate Professor Seokheun Choi - Binghamton University faculty of Electrical and Computer Science has spent five years researching and developing several types of paper batteries using bacteria to generate energy.

Associate Professor Seokheun Choi.(Photo: Binghamton University.)

Along with his research assistant Maedeh Mohammadifar, Seokheun Choi created a high-performance biofuel battery from paper. To do that, they built microbial fuel cells that contained inactivated freeze-dried cold cells, capable of transmitting electricity outside the cell's shell, called exoelectrogenic .

After being wetted with saliva, exoelectrogenic cells are capable of generating electricity with a long duration of several minutes.

This type of battery is superior to other conventional power solutions. Even in the most resource-constrained environments, the biological fluids required for battery activation are always available.

Currently, the power density is only a few microwatt / cm2, but when connecting 16 micro-fuel cells together on a sheet of paper, it will provide enough lighting energy for an LED. Thus, the current problem is the need to improve power capacity, hundreds of milliwatts of energy will be generated. Choi and his colleagues are trying to solve that problem.