In 1799, the Italian physicist Alessandro Volt was fascinated by the 'Volt Heap', which was made of zinc and copper stacked in arms. The two were separated by brine. This 'Volt Heap' is the world The first kind of electrochemical cell, but the design basis of Volta comes from the more ancient thing - the electric body.
Electric eel is a kind of freshwater fish that can discharge through specialized muscle tissue. Their body length can reach up to two meters, and the length of discharge organs can reach up to 80% of the body length. There are thousands of discharge organs. Specialized muscle cells, called 'discharge bodies'. Each discharge body produces only a small voltage, but when thousands of discharge bodies are put together, they can generate up to 600 volts, enough to knock down a person, or even A horse. The electric discharge mechanism provided Volta with inspiration for the invention battery, making him a 19th century celebrity.
After two centuries, the battery has become our daily necessities. But even now, the electric cymbals are still inspiring scientists. At the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, the research team led by Michael Meyer invented a kind of electro-optical device. A new type of flexible battery for discharge organs. This type of battery consists of gel blocks of different colors and is arranged in strips like electric discharge bodies. If you want to start the battery, you only need to stack these gel blocks together.
Unlike conventional batteries, this new type of battery is very flexible and flexible, and it may be used in next-generation soft body robots. Moreover, since the materials used in batteries are compatible with our bodies, it is possible to promote the development of next-generation pacemakers, prosthetics. And the potential of medical implants. Imagine contact lenses that can generate electricity, or pacemakers that can run on liquids and salt in our body. All of these products may be inspired by electricity.
In order to develop this distinctive battery, the research team members Tom Schroder and Anne Guha began to understand the working principle of the electric discharge body. These cells are stacked in long strips and there is a liquid-filled space between them. - It's like stacking pancakes with honey or syrup. When the electric kettle is resting, each discharge body pumps positive ions from the front and back, producing two opposing voltages that cancel each other out.
However, when needed, the back side of the discharge body will flip over, and positive ions will be pumped in the opposite direction to form a tiny voltage across the entire cell. The key point is that all the discharge bodies can be turned at the same time, and their tiny voltages can be added together. Produces powerful electric energy. It's like there are thousands of such batteries on the tail of the electric pole. Half of them are in the wrong direction, but the electric poles can always adjust them to the “right” direction, aligning and discharging them. This level of specialization is simply incredible.
Schroeder and his colleagues initially wanted to imitate the entire discharge organ in the laboratory, but they soon realized that this was too complicated. Afterwards, they considered stacking many membranes to imitate the stacking form of the discharge body - However, fine membrane materials are difficult to operate in thousands of orders of magnitude. If a membrane ruptures, the entire cell will fail.
Eventually, the researchers chose a simpler solution, using a gel mass filled between two separate substrates. The red gel contained saline, while the blue gel contained fresh water. The ions would have flowed from the red gel to the blue coagulation. Gum, but due to the spacing of the substrates, such flow cannot occur. At the same time, green and yellow gels are arranged on the other substrate corresponding to this substrate, as they bridge the gap between the blue and red gels. Can provide a channel for ion movement.
The tact of this design is that the green gel block only allows positive ions to pass, while the yellow gel block allows only negative ions to pass through. This means that positive ions can only flow into the blue gel from one side and negative ions only from The other side flows in. This creates a voltage on the blue gel, just like an electric discharge body. Also, just like the discharge of a 'cooperative' electric discharge body, each gel block produces only a tiny voltage, but thousands When gel blocks are arranged in a row, they can generate up to 110 volts.
The discharge body of the battery will only discharge after receiving signals from the nervous system, but in the Schroeder et al. design, the triggering of the gel discharge is much simpler - you only need to press the two groups of gel pressure Come together.
If these gels are placed on a large substrate, they will be very troublesome to use. In order to solve this problem, University of Michigan engineer Max Stein put forward a clever solution - origami. Use similar to the folding of solar panels. Into the special folding method of the satellite, he designed a folding plate that enables the gels to contact in the correct order, the correct color, so that the research team can make the same power in a much smaller space. The battery takes up very little space. , Only contact lenses are so big, maybe one day you can achieve wearable applications.
Currently, such batteries also require active charging. Once activated, they can provide several hours of electrical energy until the ion levels between different gels reach equilibrium. At this point, they need to be recharged, and the current returns the gel to high salt and Low-salt alternate states. However, Schroeder pointed out that our body can continuously supplement body fluids with different ion concentrations, and one day we may be able to use these reserves to develop batteries.
In essence, this will bring the human body closer to electricity. Although the possibility of electroporation of other people is low, using the ion gradient in our body may provide power for some small-sized medical implants. Of course, there is still a long way to go to achieve this goal.
