>
Spotlight May 2023: Dual energy – edible batteries
An Italian research group reports on edible batteries that supply electric current and can be digested as food, thus providing energy a second time. What sounds funny at first has a serious background, because in medicine, power sources are needed that could be transported through the digestive tract and possibly remain in the body unintentionally, e.g., for swallowable mini-cameras that could be used in gastroscopies and colonoscopies. If the battery materials are then digestible, there will be no problematic effects from the battery if it does not pass through the body quickly enough.
The battery presented is composed of dietary and nutritional supplements, and since all components are either digestible or pass through the body unchanged, they could actually be eaten. The authors did test the battery’s functionality, so it does provide electricity, but they did not eat their battery because the battery case was too large and not constructed of digestible materials, so more research is needed here.
Original publication:
Ilic, I. K., Galli, V., Lamanna, L., Cataldi, P., Pasquale, L., Annese, V. F., Athanassiou, A., Caironi, M., An Edible Rechargeable Battery. Adv. Mater. 2023, 2211400.
Weitere Spotlights
Spotlight August 2021: Towards FAIR nanosafety data
In August we would like to present a paper on FAIR data. The paper published in Nature Nanotechnology in June 2021 summarises the challenges and provides recommendations for the efficient reuse of nanosafety data in line with the recently established FAIR guiding principles: findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. This article summarises the know-how on the […]
Read moreSpotlight August 2020: The nanoGRAVUR Grouping approach
In August, we would like to present a paper of the German BMBF project nanoGRAVUR. nanoGRAVUR dealt from 2015-2018 with the grouping of nanostructured materials with regard to occupational safety, consumer and environmental protection and risk mitigation. The approach is now described by the project partners in this paper.Due to the variety of synthetic nanomaterials and the numerous modifications (differences in size, shape, chemical composition and surface functionalization), the effort required to investigate effects and behaviour within the framework of regulatory requirements is…
Read moreSpotlight March 2021: Is Nanotechnology the Swiss Army Knife against Future Pandemics?
The COVID 19 outbreak has led to a fundamental rethinking of existing approaches to diagnosis, treatment, and prevention methods. The need for better and more efficient concepts is global and urgent. Nanotechnology has long been at the forefront of innovation and has led to advances in many different disciplines. Could this interdisciplinary field help develop […]
Read moreSpotlight March 2022: Safe Materials from Scratch – Safe-by-Design-Concept in action
In recent decades, German research on nanomaterials and new, innovative materials has been widely expanded by material safety aspects. European initiatives also pay significant attention to this: both the European Union (EU) Green Deal, and the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability (CSS) aim to create a sustainable, climate-neutral economy with sustainable and safe chemicals and products, […]
Read more