Creating a nanogenerator that extracts energy from human blood

Physicists from the United States have created a nanogenerator that extracts electrical energy from the friction that is generated when blood passes through the internal components of this device.

Its development will make it possible to provide power to various autonomous sensors and biosensors. This came in a statement published by the press service of the University of Pittsburgh.

“Human blood is an aqueous solution that contains a large number of molecules that facilitate or hinder the movement of electricity through the blood,” said Alan Wells, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh. “These compounds include glucose. The device we developed allows us to monitor how it affects blood conductivity and make immediate diagnoses.”

The device developed by the researchers is called a triboelectric nanogenerator, which is a device capable of generating an electric current as a result of the friction of water molecules or other liquids on surfaces coated with materials with different electrical properties.

The movement of blood or other fluids between the panels of these materials generates positive and negative charges on their surfaces, which leads to the flow of an electric current between them. Physicists have proposed using this electrical energy to power electronics, perform diagnostic measurements, and observe how the process of generating current affects the resistance and other physical properties of the biological samples being studied.

Guided by this idea, scientists created a compact glucose sensor that allows the amount of sugar in the blood to be determined by the amount of current and voltage that the nanogenerator produces when a small amount of blood the size of one milliliter is passed through it. According to physicists, these measurements do not require specialized tools, so they can be performed directly in the patient’s home.

The scientists successfully tested the diagnostic system on samples of artificial plasma, as well as on blood samples from nine volunteers, some of whom had diabetes. These experimental results, according to the researchers, indicate that the nanogenerator and the biochips based on it can be used to develop autonomous sensors and diagnostic systems that can operate even in areas of the world far from civilization.