A battery powered by urine
I’m having flashbacks to seventh grade science class (one of my favoritest classes ever), and the voltaic pile that we made. Scientists have recently created a battery that is powered by urine, similar to the original voltaic piles, only miniaturized.
I’m not quite sure why this is so amazing given that it’s essentially technology from the 1700s. The device creates electricity via an electrochemical reaction: one side of the paper gains electrons (oxidation) and one side loses electrons (reduction). This redox reaction creates a small amount of voltage, which can be used to power small medical devices such as diabetes monitors. Urine contains glucose, the concentration of which can be used to determine the level of sugar in the blood.
The unit is much smaller than a traditional voltaic pile, but it functions on the same principle:
The battery unit is made from a layer of paper that is steeped in copper chloride (CuCl) and sandwiched between strips of magnesium and copper. This “sandwich” is then held in place by being laminated, which involves passing the battery unit between a pair of transparent plastic films through a heating roller at 120ºC. The final product has dimensions of 60 mm x 30 mm, and a thickness of just 1 mm (a little bit smaller than a credit card).
Writing in the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, Lee describes how the battery was created and quantifies its performance. Using 0.2 ml of urine, they generated a voltage of around 1.5 V with a corresponding maximum power of 1.5 mW. They also found that the battery performances (such as voltage, power or duration) may be designed or adjusted by changing the geometry or materials used.
I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same?
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