While this isn’t strictly neuroscience related, I thought it was interesting and relevant to my earlier post regarding implantable devices. And it was developed at my college.

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have created a battery on paper. More specifically, the paper is the battery. The new battery works in a huge range of temperatures (-100 all the way to 300 degrees Fahrenheit), contains no toxic chemicals and is primarily made out of cellulose. It can also double as a high-power supercapacitor. Carbon nanotubes are integrated in the paper, which is soaked in an ionic solution. The paper is completely flexible and loses no efficiency. Furthermore, the paper sheets can be stacked like a ream of paper to boost output.

The truly important value comes from the battery’s friendly attitude towards the human body.

Paper is also extremely biocompatible and these new hybrid battery/supercapcitors have potential as power supplies for devices implanted in the body. The team printed paper batteries without adding any electrolytes, and demonstrated that naturally occurring electrolytes in human sweat, blood, and urine can be used to activate the battery device.

“It’s a way to power a small device such as a pacemaker without introducing any harsh chemicals – such as the kind that are typically found in batteries – into the body,” Pushparaj said.

The team says that the batteries are made of very cheap materials. The process to create them, however, is still too expensive to mass produce. They are working on ways to decrease the production cost. Once it becomes inexpensive to mass produce they expect it to be used in everything from cell phones to pacemakers.