Researchers have developed a sweat-powered “biobattery”

Ever wondered what the world would be like if you could harness your own sweat to charge your mobile devices? Probably not, but nevertheless, researchers at the University of California at San Diego have designed a device which does exactly that.

Unveiled at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Francisco, the device is actually a temporary tattoo that produces power from perspiration. The device uses lactate as fuel, the molecule that your body produces naturally after vigorous exercise.

This “biobattery” could soon be used to power things such as heart monitors, digital watches, and possibly even smartphones, according to scientists in California. Many researchers have been trying to find the best way to harness “people power” which has led to many interesting innovations, such as movement power and even blood power.

“Our device is the first to use sweat. It’s a proof of concept,” said Dr Wenzhao Jia of at the University of California, San Diego. “At the moment the power is not that high, only four microwatts, but we are working on enhancing it so it can power small electronic devices.”

The funny things is, the researchers at the University of California at San Diego who designed the biobattery weren’t even trying to create it at first, they were actually looking for a better way to measure lactate.

Athletes sometimes evaluate their fitness by checking their lactate levels in their blood, and the researchers wanted to develop a way to measure lactate in sweat instead so that people no longer have to draw blood.

The team of researchers designed a monitor that strips electronics from lactate, a process which creates a small electric current. All the team has to do from there is measure the strength of the current to determine the amount of lactate in the person’s body.

From there, the researchers wondered if it would be possible to tap into that energy to create a sort of sweat-powered biobattery. The team’s proof-of-concept setup produces a miniscule, relatively useless amount of energy, but advancements in this technology and more efficient electronics could one day make sweat-powered biobatteries a reality.

Read more about the story at Phys.

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