{"id":47901,"date":"2023-04-20T17:17:50","date_gmt":"2023-04-20T21:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=47901"},"modified":"2023-04-20T17:17:50","modified_gmt":"2023-04-20T21:17:50","slug":"scientists-in-italy-invented-the-first-edible-rechargeable-battery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=47901","title":{"rendered":"Scientists in Italy invented the first edible rechargeable battery"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

Scientists at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia<\/a> (Italian Institute of Technology) in Genoa have successfully created a completely edible, rechargeable battery.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The researchers\u2019 paper \u2013 \u201cAn Edible Chargeable Battery\u201d \u2013 was recently published<\/a> in the Advanced Materials<\/em> journal, in which they described their proof-of-concept battery cell.<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t yet heard of them, edible electronics have been around for the last couple of years, but they\u2019re still in the early stages. They\u2019re used for gut health monitoring, remote monitoring of the inside of the human body, and rapid food quality monitoring.<\/p>\n

And what\u2019s needed are edible batteries \u2013 power sources \u2013 to go along with those edible electronics.<\/p>\n

The researchers\u2019 edible battery uses riboflavin (Vitamin B2, found, for example, in almonds, yogurt, and eggs) as the anode and quercetin (a food supplement and ingredient in capers, apples, and red wine, to name a few) as the cathode.<\/p>\n

Activated charcoal \u2013 available as an over-the-counter medication \u2013 was used to increase electrical conductivity, and the electrolyte is water-based.<\/p>\n

The separator, which is needed in every battery to avoid short circuits, was made from nori seaweed, the kind found in sushi.<\/p>\n

The electrodes were encapsulated in beeswax from which two food-grade gold contacts \u2013 the edible gold foil that pastry chefs use \u2013 on a cellulose-derived support stick out.<\/p>\n

The researchers\u2019 edible rechargeable battery cell operates at 0.65 V, a voltage low enough not to create problems when humans ingest it. It can provide a current of 48 \u03bcA for 12 minutes or a few microamps for more than an hour, enough to supply power to small electronic devices, such as low-power LEDs, for a limited time.<\/p>\n

As for the rechargeable part of the battery, the researchers note in the paper\u2019s introduction that \u201cdeveloping rechargeable batteries is essential in green electronics since it allows them to be reused when the application permits (e.g., food monitoring), thereby significantly reducing waste.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, if someone eats the battery and it doesn\u2019t, erm, come back out, then, of course, the recharging part is out the window. They continue:<\/p>\n

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While rechargeable properties of the battery might not be useful for short-lived applications inside the human body, edible devices operating outside the human body can be recharged, prolonging their lifetime.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So, of course, this tiny thing can\u2019t power EVs or keep the lights on with solar in a home at the moment, and we don\u2019t see this happening anytime soon. And you wouldn\u2019t want to eat your EV battery \u2013 because duh.<\/p>\n

But perhaps a tiny, edible, rechargeable battery that works now is potentially planting the seed for the invention of larger food-based rechargeable batteries in the future. The research team is already developing devices with greater capacity.<\/p>\n

Ivan Ilic, a study co-author, explains:<\/p>\n

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This edible battery is also very interesting for the energy storage community. Building safer batteries, without the use of toxic materials, is a challenge we face as battery demand soars. <\/em><\/p>\n

While our edible batteries won\u2019t power electric cars, they are proof that batteries can be made from safer materials than current Li-ion batteries. We believe they will inspire other scientists to build safer batteries for a truly sustainable future.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Read more:<\/strong> Scientists have found major storage capacity in water-based batteries<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo: Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia<\/em><\/p>\n

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<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scientists at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italian Institute of Technology) in Genoa have successfully created a completely edible, rechargeable battery. The researchers\u2019 paper \u2013 \u201cAn Edible Chargeable Battery\u201d \u2013 was recently published in the Advanced Materials journal, in which they described their proof-of-concept battery cell. If you haven\u2019t yet heard of them, edible electronics […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-cars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}