This Edible Battery Could Power the World of Diagnostics and Sustainable Energy

upstart writes:

Researchers have created an edible power resource that could boost healthcare and help preserve the environment:

Most examinations of the gastrointestinal region involve sending a thin tube with a camera affixed to the tip either down your throat to the small intestine or through the rectum to the colon, neither of which are pleasant experiences.

However, an innovative, and increasingly attractive -- albeit less common -- method is to dispatch a camera housed in a small, vitamin pill-shaped capsule along with silver oxide batteries on its maiden voyage down into your gut.

[...] While this process sounds great so far, there's a problem. Ingestible devices, as amazing as they are, require medical oversight while they're administered and they sometimes get lodged into the mountainous crevices of your innards.

Out of nowhere, you've gone from a routine, affordable cancer test to surgery and a humongous medical bill.

But what if the pill camera was made of substances that were not harmful and somehow quietly melded away into nothingness once it served its tour of duty?

Italian researchers from Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT-Italian Institute of Technology) have engineered a battery that could power devices, such as the pill camera, using ingredients you may find in any food lover's pantry.

[...] This carefully crafted work of ingenuity is able to operate at 0.65 Volts, low enough to not affect humans when they swallow it, but with enough juice to power a tiny LED for a short while.

Journal Reference:
Ivan K. Ilic, Valerio Galli, et. al. An Edible Rechargeable Battery, Advanced Materials (DOI: 10.1002/adma.202211400)

Original Submission

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