STRETCHY SWEAT-POWERED BATTERY MADE OUT OF FABRIC
Soon you could be charging your smartphone with your sweaty socks. A team at Binghamton University, State University of New York, have created a fabric-based, bacteria-powered biobattery that could be integrated into wearable electronics.
According to the team, the microbial fuel cells could be powered by sweat generated by the human body, and produce more electricity than previous textile biobattery designs, which could be useful for wearables. “There is a clear and pressing need for flexible and stretchable electronics that can be easily integrated with a wide range of surroundings to collect real-time information,” said research lead Dr Seokheun Choi. “If we consider that humans possess more bacterial cells than human cells in their bodies, the direct use of bacterial cells as a power resource interdependently with the human body is conceivable for wearable electronics.” The fuel cells use Pseudomonas
aeruginosa, a small rod-shaped bacterium, along with a pair of electrodes coupled with a silver and silver oxide solution to produce electricity. The fuel cells were able to generate electricity in a stable manner, even when subjected to the stretching and twisting exhibited over a long lifetime.