Bendy batteries that run on salt water could power your next wearable

A revolution in battery technology is brewing and it could make non-toxic, recyclable batteries the norm.

Scientists in China have developed a thin, flexible battery powered by body-friendly fluids – namely, saline (or intravenous) solution and cell-culture medium – that could be perfect for wearables and implantable medical devices.

"Current batteries like the lithium-ion ones used in medical implants generally come in rigid shapes," said team lead Yonggang Wang of Fudan University in Shanghai. "Additionally, most of the reported flexible batteries are based on flammable organic or corrosive electrolytes, which suffer from safety hazards and poor biocompatibility for wearable devices, let alone implantable ones."

The use of sodium-based electrolytes that are neither corrosive nor toxic reduces the dangers associated with leaks when they do occur, while the flexibility could see these new batteries used in far more products than lithium-ion batteries, like smart clothing.

Bending over backwards

Artistic rendition of the proof-of-concept flexible batteries. Credit: Zhaowei Guo, et. al.

Artistic rendition of the proof-of-concept flexible batteries. Credit: Zhaowei Guo, et. al.

Having done away with dangerous electrolytes, the team had the freedom to build batteries that didn’t need to have excessive structural reinforcements, leading to the creation of two flexible designs – a belt-like shape, made of thin films of electrode material stuck on a steel mesh, and a woven carbon nanotube fiber backbone embedded with nanoparticle electrode materials.

During testing, both batteries came out with flying colours, outperforming most lithium-ion batteries currently used in wearables in terms of power output and amount of charge they can hold.

The accidental cancer treatment

Not only did the concept batteries outperform traditional batteries, the nanotube fiber version accelerated the conversion of dissolved oxygen into hydroxide ions. In simple words, starved the electrolyte of oxygen.

Even though this reduces the battery’s effectiveness, deoxygenation is perfect for cancer starvation therapy.

"We can implant these fiber-shaped electrodes into the human body to consume essential oxygen, especially for areas that are difficult for injectable drugs to reach," explained Wang. "Deoxygenation might even wipe out cancerous cells or pathogenic bacteria since they are very sensitive to changes in living environment pH. Of course, this is hypothetical right now, but we hope to investigate further with biologists and medical scientists."

Just spit on it

Meanwhile, researchers at Binghamton University in New York have created a paper-based battery that is powered by bacteria in saliva.

This new innovation, which could be pretty cheap to run, can power a single LED light for about 20 minutes with just one drop of spit.

According to Professor Seokheun Choi, co-author of the paper published on this new bio-battery, “This is all about a disposable, easy-to-use, and portable bio-battery that can generate power from bacterial metabolism. This battery is ready to operate with human body fluids like saliva for on-demand power generation for other disposable low-power applications such as biosensors.”

So there may come a day when all we’ll need to power up our phones is some simple spit.

Via ScienceAlert and Popular Mechanics

Sharmishta Sarkar
Managing Editor (APAC)

While she's happiest with a camera in her hand, Sharmishta's main priority is being TechRadar's APAC Managing Editor, looking after the day-to-day functioning of the Australian, New Zealand and Singapore editions of the site, steering everything from news and reviews to ecommerce content like deals and coupon codes. While she loves reviewing cameras and lenses when she can, she's also an avid reader and has become quite the expert on ereaders and E Ink writing tablets, having appeared on Singaporean radio to talk about these underrated devices. Other than her duties at TechRadar, she's also the Managing Editor of the Australian edition of Digital Camera World, and writes for Tom's Guide and T3.

Latest in Tech
Josie and Matt laughing in front of the Google Pixel 9a
TechRadar Podcast: Is the Pixel 9a ugly? Has Apple ruined the smartwatch market? And is Samsung's One UI in trouble?
A Lego Pikachu tail next to a Pebble OS watch and a screenshot of Assassin's Creed Shadow
ICYMI: the week's 7 biggest tech stories from LG's excellent new OLED TV to our Assassin's Creed Shadow review
A triptych image of the Meridian Ellipse, LG C5 and Xiaomi 15.
5 amazing tech reviews of the week: LG's latest OLED TV is the best you can buy and Xiaomi's seriously powerful new phone
Beats Studio Pro Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones in Black and Gold on yellow background with big savings text
The best Beats headphones you can buy drop to $169.99 at Best Buy's Tech Fest sale
Ray-Ban smart glasses with the Cpperni logo, an LED array, and a MacBook Air with M4 next to ecah other.
ICYMI: the week's 7 biggest tech stories from Twitter's massive outage to iRobot's impressive new Roombas
A triptych image featuring the Sennheiser HD 505, Apple iPad Air 11-inch (2025), and Apple MacBook Air 15-inch (M4).
5 unmissable tech reviews of the week: why the MacBook Air (M4) should be your next laptop and the best sounding OLED TV ever
Latest in News
An image of Pro-Ject's Flatten it closed and opened
Pro-Ject’s new vinyl flattener will fix any warped LPs you inadvertently buy on Record Store Day
EA Sports F1 25 promotional image featuring drivers Oscar Piastri, Carlos Sainz and Oliver Bearman.
F1 25 has been officially announced, with this year's entry marking a return for Braking Point and a 'significant overhaul' for My Team mode
Garmin clippd integration
Garmin's golf watches just got a big software integration upgrade to help you improve your game
Robert Downey Jr reveals himself as Doctor Doom to a delighted crowd at San Diego Comic-Con 2024
Marvel is currently revealing the full cast for Avengers: Doomsday, and I think it's going to be a long-winded announcement
Samsung QN90F on yellow background
Samsung announces US prices for its 2025 mini-LED TV lineup, and it’s good and bad news
Nintendo Switch Lite
Forget the Nintendo Switch 2, the original Switch is getting one last hurrah in a surprise Nintendo Direct tomorrow