The technological advancements have already astonished a range of people from all walks of life. It is a virtue that has brought the worlds closer and has helped solve some of the major challenges of the people across the nations. These advancements are ever-growing and have now reached to the next level with inventions such as a battery which is activated by a very easily available resource which is beyond the imagination of a common man; human saliva. Yes, you read it right human spit can power these batteries developed by the researchers from the Binghamton University, New York. Isn’t it incredible? Let’s know more about these batteries which are powered from human spit
The Basic Idea behind the Startling Concept
The researchers had been working on micro-power generation when they generated this concept of a paper-based bacteria powered battery which can be activated by just one drop of saliva and produce as much energy to power an LED light for 20 minutes. This notion is best suitable to be used in extreme conditions where normal batteries fail to work. Furthermore, this technology can be used for the application which calls for the hint of microwatt-level power for several minutes and the commercial batteries or other energy reaping technologies prove to be expensive and a threat to the environment.
A Sneak Peak to its Working
The battery is made up specially designed bacterial cells known as exoelectrogens, which possess the capability to produce electrons externally to the outside electrode. These bacterial cells are freeze-dried to make able for long term storage and can be used in challenging situations where you just need your spit to rehydrate it and trigger the freeze-dried cells. The saliva serves as a stimulator for the exoelectrogens, which initiates within minutes of spitting and churns out power used by the battery.
The Wonder Materials Behind the Make of the Batteries
To add a cherry to the top, this battery is extremely environment-friendly and has a long shelf life. Moreover, it does not require any high-tech or expensive materials to be made up. It merely includes paper, carbon and printing wax and can be disposed of easily as compared to the expensive conventional batteries which are hard to be scraped due to the materials used.
Likewise, this gadget can be of huge help in powering the medical devices and can be used to influence the pregnancy tests as well as HIV tests and other glucose sensors. However, it can be an enormous help to the developing countries where buying conventional batteries is not possible by some due to the costs associated with it.
The researchers are working hard to make more advancements in this field. They are now planning to fold or stack these paper batteries together to connect them in series and be more generative for the users. The power from human spit will be able to produce power up to hundreds of microwatts or conceivably more.
Bibliography
- Dormehl, L. (2017, Aug 11). It’s saliva! A new ultra-thin battery is powered by spit http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2017/08/11/its-saliva-new-ultra-thin-battery-is-powered-by-spit.html.
- Jeremy Deaton, N. M. (2017, Aug 19). Scientists have developed a battery that gets its power from human spit http://www.businessinsider.com/scientists-have-developed-a-battery-that-gets-power-from-human-spit-2017-8?IR=T.
- New battery is activated by your spit. (2017, Aug 08) https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/08/170808145937.htm.
- University, B. (2017, Aug 08). New battery is activated by your spit https://www.binghamton.edu/mpr/news-releases/news-release.html?id=2537.
- https://hiveminer.com/Tags/spiting
