This Fully-Edible Battery, Built From Substances Found in Almonds and Capers, Is a Tasty Idea
While it might not be very flavorful, this beeswax-encased edible battery certainly won't do you any harm.
Researchers from the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Politecnico di Milano, and the University of Salento have come up with what they say is the world's first completely edible rechargeable battery — a device which could find a home in everything from in-body electronics to food monitoring.
"Future potential uses [for the battery] range from edible circuits and sensors that can monitor health conditions to the powering of sensors for monitoring food storage conditions," explains research coordinator Mario Caironi. "Moreover, given the level of safety of these batteries, they could be used in children toys, where there is a high risk of ingestion. Actually, we are already developing devices with greater capacity and reducing the overall size. These developments will be tested in future also for powering edible soft robots."
The battery developed by the team, which they point out is currently a proof-of-concept, is based on rivoflavin, also known as Vitamin B2 and found in almonds, and quercetin, found in capers, that act as the anode and cathode respectively. A water-based electrolyte and a separator made from nori seaweed complete the battery, which has its electrical conductivity increased through the addition of activated charcoal before being encapsulated in beeswax with two food-grade gold contacts on a cellulose-derived support.
In other words: everything that goes into making the battery is completely edible, if not digestible, yet it still operates perfectly well as an energy storage system. The prototype proved capable of delivering 48µA of current at 0.65V for a period of 12 minutes — a small amount of power, granted, but enough for a simple sensor package.
"This edible battery is also very interesting for [the] energy storage community," adds first author Ivan Ilic of the work. "Building safer batteries, without usage of toxic materials, is a challenge we face as battery demand soars. While our edible batteries won’t power electric cars, they are a proof that batteries can be made from safer materials than current Li-ion [lithium-ion] batteries. We believe they will inspire other scientists to build safer batteries for truly sustainable future."
The team's work has been published in the journal Advanced Materials under open-access terms; no path to commercialization has yet been announced.
Main article image courtesy of the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia.