pee-powered battery smaller than a credit card - home battery system

Shaoni BhattacharyaThe first pee
Singapore physicists have created power paper batteries. The credit-
They say card-sized devices can be useful power supplies for cheap medical test kits for diseases like diabetes, and can even be used to power phones in case of emergency.
Detection of urine can reveal the identity of the disease, and the new paper battery can also power the tested sample to the diagnostic equipment.
"We are trying to develop cheap one-off credit --
A card-sized biochip for disease detection, "said Ki Bang Lee of the Singapore Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology.
"Our batteries can be easily integrated into these devices and powered by contact with biological fluids such as urine or blood.
"The current biochip requires an external reader (such as a laser scanner) or an external power supply (such as a conventional battery) for diagnostic testing.
Lees s technology puts both sensors and batteries on a plastic chip.
This design evades many of the problems that researchers have encountered in trying to narrow down more traditional battery systems to use with bio EMS
Microcomputer electric system
"Many researchers are trying to design power supplies or batteries for systems or biological EMS devices.
However, they do this by reducing the size of traditional, bulky power systems or batteries, "Lee explains.
"They are facing a lot of problems, including the difficulty of getting enough electricity," he added . ". The urine-
The power battery can generate a voltage of about 1.
5 V-the corresponding power is 1. 5 micro-
Watts-use 0 only.
2 ml of urine, Li said.
If a second drop of urine is added 15 hours after the first activation of the battery, the supplemented urine can generate more electricity.
The battery is currently suitable for use with a disposable device-it is not ready to power a laptop or ipod.
"But, for example, if we put a small cell phone or transmitter on a plastic card, the chip will work as a disposable bio-fluid --
"In an emergency, activate means of communication," Li told the New Scientist . ".
"In this case, the scale will be smaller than the credit card.
The battery is made of a filter sheet soaked in copper chloride, sandwiched between magnesium and copper.
The "sandwich" is then laminated in plastic to fix the whole package together.
The resulting battery is only 1mm thick, 60 by 30mm-slightly smaller than the credit card.
To activate the battery, add a drop of urine and soak it through the sandwich filter paper.
Chemicals dissolve and react to generate electricity.
The magnesium layer loses electrons as an anode.
Copper chloride acts as a cathode and drags electrons away.
But Lee added that the voltage, current and capacity of the battery can be improved through different designs or switching the electrode or electrolyte materials used.
He believes the system can be used at home.
Based on the health test suite. “The long-
"The goal of the semester is to enable people to buy disposable biochips from any pharmacy for disease testing," he said . ".
Magazine reference and colon;
Journal of micro-machinery and micro-engineering (DOI: 10. 1088/0960-1317/15/9/S06)