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posted by mrpg on Saturday May 13 2017, @03:03AM   Printer-friendly
from the air-is-a-fluid dept.

a team of researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Connecticut have designed a biofriendly supercapacitor system that charges up using electrolytes from biological fluids, such as blood serum and urine. It works in tandem with an energy harvester that can convert heat and motion into electricity that is stored in the supercapacitor.
...
The new biosupercapacitor consists of an electrode that is made of graphene layered with modified human proteins, while biological fluids act as electrolytes. Unlike unmodified graphene oxide, which was found to cause toxic cell damage at low doses, the protein-modified graphene oxide nanocomposite material developed by the team showed no toxicity in mouse embryo fibroblasts and cell cultures at high concentrations.

The team says the bioelectrical capacitor device measures just one micrometer thick, is flexible, allowing it to stand up the mechanical stresses of being twisted and turned inside the body, and boasts an energy density comparable to lithium thin film batteries that are currently used in pacemakers. Although supercapacitors haven't yet been widely incorporated in medical implant devices, the researchers claim the technology holds potential for such uses.

"Combining energy harvesters with supercapacitors can provide endless power for lifelong implantable devices that may never need to be replaced," said Maher El-Kady, a UCLA postdoctoral researcher. "Our research focused on custom-designing our supercapacitor to capture energy effectively, and finding a way to make it compatible with the human body."

It would never work. Medical device manufacturers would lose too much money.


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  • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 13 2017, @03:11AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 13 2017, @03:11AM (#508973)

    Well now, Life Fibers are real, Kill la Kill is coming true.

    ... oops, sorry. An anime from four years ago is too recent for this crowd. Continue your regularly scheduled senility.

    Starting Score:    0  points
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 13 2017, @03:45AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 13 2017, @03:45AM (#508983)

    Continue your regularly scheduled senility.

    :-) HA! Be grateful we won't be around to laugh at yours. But watch out! By then Soylent might be a real thing

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 13 2017, @04:35AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 13 2017, @04:35AM (#508999)

    Let me tell you two useful pieces of information.

    1. You're wrong about that.

    2. You're a pig in human clothing.