Medical Design and Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Supplies and Components Index
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • MedTech Resources
    • Medtech Events in 2025
    • The 2024 Medtech Big 100
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Subscribe to Print Magazine
    • DeviceTalks
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Voices
    • Video
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
    • 2021 Winners
  • Women in Medtech
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe

New biocompatible batteries harvest energy from the body

August 22, 2017 By Danielle Kirsh

biocompatible battery

[Image from the University of Maryland]

University of Maryland engineers have created a biocompatible battery that uses the same ion-based electrical energy that is present in all living things – including humans.

Sodium, potassium and other electrolytes are constantly flowing through our bodies and creating electrical signals. The electrical signals are what power the brain and help control the rhythm of the heart.

Traditional batteries produce power by using a flow of moving electrons. Those batteries move positive ions from one end of the battery to the other. The University of Maryland battery does the opposite by moving electrons around the device to deliver a flow of ions. The engineers claim that this is the first time that an ionic-current-generating battery has been made.

“My intention is for ionic systems to interface with human systems,” Liangbing Hu, the head of the group that developed that battery, said in a press release. “So I came up with the reverse design of a battery. In a typical battery, electrons flow through wires to interface electronics and ions flow through the battery separator. In our reverse design, a tradition battery is electronically shorted (that means electrons are flowing through the metal wires). Then ions have to flow through the outside ionic cables. In this case, the ions in the ionic cable – here, grass fibers – can interface with living systems.”

Living cells use ionic currents that flow at a low voltage. Electronic-to-ionic patches would create a current that is too high to run a brain or a muscle. The engineers suggest that the patches could be eliminated by using ionic current batteries that could be run at any voltage.

“The battery could be used to develop medical devices for the disabled, or for more efficient drug and gene delivery tools in both research and clinical settings, as a way to more precisely treat cancers and other medical diseases,” said Jianhua Zhang, a staff scientist at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. “Potential applications might include the development of the next generation of devices to micro-manipulate neuronal activities and interactions that can prevent and/or treat such medical problems as Alzheimer’s disease and depression.”

The UMD battery also uses grass to store its energy. The engineers soaked blades of Kentucky bluegrass in a lithium salt solution. The channels that move nutrients through the grass blades held the solution. They tested the battery by putting the blades of grass inside two glass tubes. The grass was connected by a thin metal wire at the top where the electrons could flow through to move through the battery as stored energy is discharged slowly. The other end of the glass tubes has a metal tip that allows the ionic currents to flow through.

When testing the battery, the researchers found that the ionic current flowed by touching the ends of the battery to the end of a lithium-soaked cotton string and a small amount of blue-dyed copper ions in the middle. Caught up in the ionic current, The copper moved along the string to the negatively charged pole when it was in the ionic current.

“The microchannels in the grass can hold the salt solution, making them a stable ionic conductor,” Chengwei Wang, first author of the paper and a graduate student in the Materials Science and Engineering Department at the University of Maryland in College Park, said.

The researchers plan to further develop the battery to diversify the types of ionic currents that electron batteries can produce.

The research was published in the journal Nature Communications and was funded by Nanostructures for Electrical Energy Storage, a DOE Energy Frontier Research Center and Intramural Research Program of the NIDDK.

(Learn from some of the medical device industry’s top executives and experts at DeviceTalks Boston on Oct. 2.)

You may also like:

  • spit battery
    This spit-powered battery could expand diagnostics in developing countries
  • battery
    9 battery and power source advances you need to know
  • neon brain
    7 ways neurostimulation could make our lives better

About The Author

Danielle Kirsh

Danielle Kirsh is an award-winning journalist and senior editor for Medical Design & Outsourcing, MassDevice, and Medical Tubing + Extrusion, and the founder of Women in Medtech and lead editor for Big 100. She received her bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism and mass communication from Norfolk State University and is pursuing her master's in global strategic communications at the University of Florida. You can connect with her on Twitter and LinkedIn, or email her at dkirsh@wtwhmedia.com.

Related Articles Read More >

A photo of the probiotic-powered dissolvable batteries.
Probiotics-powered bioresorbable battery can run more than 100 minutes, researchers say
An image of Resonant Link Medical's wireless 20-minute IPG recharger.
Resonant Link Medical hires medtech vet from Abbott as CEO
MIT Microbattery zinc-air battery drug delivery (1)
MIT engineers create tiny batteries for cell-sized robots
A photo of an Eko Health Core digital stethoscope on a patient's chest.
Tips on Bluetooth, batteries and Apple vs. Android from Eko Health co-founder and CEO Connor Landgraf
“mdo
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest medical device business news, application and technology trends.

DeviceTalks Weekly

See More >

MDO Digital Edition

Digital Edition

Subscribe to Medical Design & Outsourcing. Bookmark, share and interact with the leading medical design engineering magazine today.

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
DeviceTalks

DeviceTalks is a conversation among medical technology leaders. It's events, podcasts, webinars and one-on-one exchanges of ideas & insights.

DeviceTalks

New MedTech Resource

Medical Tubing

MassDevice

Mass Device

The Medical Device Business Journal. MassDevice is the leading medical device news business journal telling the stories of the devices that save lives.

Visit Website
MDO ad
Medical Design and Outsourcing
  • MassDevice
  • DeviceTalks
  • MedTech100 Index
  • Medical Tubing + Extrusion
  • Medical Design Sourcing
  • Drug Delivery Business News
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing World
  • R&D World
  • About Us/Contact
  • Advertise With Us
  • Subscribe to Print Magazine
  • Subscribe to our E-Newsletter
  • Listen to our Weekly Podcasts
  • Join our DeviceTalks Tuesdays Discussion

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media LLC. Site Map | Privacy Policy | RSS

Search Medical Design & Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Supplies and Components Index
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • MedTech Resources
    • Medtech Events in 2025
    • The 2024 Medtech Big 100
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Subscribe to Print Magazine
    • DeviceTalks
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Voices
    • Video
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
    • 2021 Winners
  • Women in Medtech
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe