Sweat-powered battery could charge your phone

Ziggy | 15 Aug, 2014 01:20PM | Leave a comment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdqbtOQQoqg In the future, when your phone battery is running low, you could charge it using your sweat.

Researchers have developed a small temporary tattoo that strips electrons from lactate produced by our bodies during perspiration.

At the moment, the energy it harnesses is just enough to charge a small bio battery, but the team are working on ways to use the technology to charge smartphones and tablets.

The device works by detecting and responding to lactate, which is naturally present in sweat.

‘Lactate is a very important indicator of how you are doing during exercise,’ said lead researcher Wenzhao Jia, Ph.D from the University of California San Diego.
HOW DOES THE PATCH WORK?

During strenuous physical activity, the body needs to generate more energy, so it activates a process called glycolysis.

Glycolysis produces energy and lactate.

Researchers imprinted a flexible lactate sensor onto temporary tattoo paper.

The sensor contains an enzyme that strips electrons from lactate, generating a weak electrical current.

This current can be used to power a sweat-powered biobattery.

Batteries produce energy by passing current, in the form of electrons, from an anode to a cathode.

In the case of the patch, the anode contains the enzyme that removes electrons from lactate, and the cathode contains a molecule that accepts the electrons.

The maximum amount of energy produced by a person in the low-fitness group was 70 microWatts per square cm of skin.

By comparison, a phone uses between two and six watts.

There are 1,000,000 microWatts in a watt so the technology is still a way off from achieving that sort of power.

In general, the more intense the exercise, the more lactate the body produces.

During strenuous physical activity, the body needs to generate more energy, so it activates a process called glycolysis.

Glycolysis produces energy and lactate, the latter of which scientists can detect in the blood.

Professional athletes monitor their lactate levels during performance testing as a way to evaluate their fitness and training program.

-dailymail