Tiny biofuel cells are implanted in the small mollusks

Mar 19, 2012 07:59 GMT  ·  By

Investigators at the Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York, have created hybrid snails, which they say are able to produce electricity. The group, led by scientist Evgeny Katz, inserted tiny biofuel cells into the mollusks, which work by extracting electricity from the glucose and oxygen in the blood.

This approach generates only a small amount of electricity, but the animals themselves are very small as well. Two electrodes are implanted in the snails as well, which can be hooked up to an external circuit. Electricity is produced every time the circuit is closed.

The snails feed on carrots for most of the time, and they can live for about 6 months. “The animals are quite fit — they eat, drink and crawl. We take care to keep them alive and happy,” Katz explains.

He goes on to say that snails are just one example of the animals used thus far as sources of electricity by his team. A report on the new study was published in last week's issue of the esteemed Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS).

A similar research was reported in the January issue of JACS by investigators at the Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), led by Daniel Scherson, who managed to implant biofuel cells in live cockroaches. A study that is to be published soon indicates that beetles can be used in this manner, too.

The US Department of Defense is very interested in such studies. Researchers have been developing battery-powered microcircuits with sensors and radio antennae for several years. These devices are to be implanted in various insects.

The bugs would then gather information from their surroundings for a variety of applications, ranging from environmental to military. At the same time, scientists realized that using conventional batteries was nearly impossible, due primarily to their bulkiness and short life.

This is why they have begun researching methods of using the carrier creatures as a power source. According to Katz, snails outfitted with the new fuel cells could power up various types of equipment for months, Astrobiology Magazine reports.

“The truly impressive portion of [Katz’s] work is that the implantation provides such stable potential for such a long period of time,” comments University of Utah in Salt Lake City biofuel cells expert, Shelley Minteer.

In the future, neutral fuel cells could be used in humans as well, for applications requiring low amounts of energy, such as for example running a pacemaker. This would eliminate the need for battery-replacement surgery.