14 DAY TRIAL // Artificial eyes and pacemakers are just two things that could benefit from a wearable inexhaustible power supply, and the Institute of Physical Chemistry in Poland claims to have invented something of the sort.
Basically, they have created a battery based on the standard zinc-air battery chemistry but modified to work in tandem with a “biocathode.”
The biocathode is made of a biological enzyme core (bilirubin oxidase) and carbon nanotube wrapping, plus a coating of silicate gel. Everything is wrapped in an oxygen-permeable membrane.
The biocathode is meant to be implanted in a patient, thus ensuring permanent charge for the new battery.
Meanwhile, the anode works like it normally does in a zinc-air battery: by oxidizing in atmospheric air and moving electrons across a circuit to the carbon cathode.
The cathode can produce 1.75 V, more by connecting multiple cells. A fully implantable battery that draws oxygen from the bloodstream instead of the atmosphere is next on the Institute's to-do list.