Researchers in China  have engineered bendable batteries that can run on body liquids such as IV-saline solutions and cell culture mediums. They designed alternatives to lithium-ion batteries by focusing on the demands of wearable electronics such as smartwatches.

According to Science Daily, researchers designed two types of flexible batteries. A 2D belt-shaped battery, with attached thin electrode films to a net of steel strands and a 1D fiber-shaped battery which they put nanoparticles of electrode material around a nanotube backbone. Engineers created these because of leakage concerns, which can require protective material that makes batteries bulky and un-bendable. Authors also tested ordinary sodium sulfate to make sure it is suitable for wearable devices.

These flexible batteries could possibly even get rid of cancer cells or bacteria. Yonggang Wang, a chemistry professor at Fudan University for Energy Materials reported, ” Deoxygenation might even wipe out cancerous cells or pathologic bacteria since they are very sensitive  to changes in  living environment ph.” By putting the fiber-shaped electrodes into the body to consume oxygen, it can reach places that injectable drugs can’t reach.

The flexible batteries do not do any harm to the body inside and out. According to Science Daily, Yonggang Wang and a macromolecular science professor Huisheng Peng, got rid of the toxic and flammable liquids for cheap and environmentally conscious sodium-ion solutions.

Source: Sciencedaily.com