Glucose is the sugar we absorb from foods and the fuel that powers every cell in our body. Can glucose power medical implants? This was tested by researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Technical University of Munich.
They have developed a new kind of glucose fuel cell that converts sugar into electricity. The chip is only 400 nanometers thick, or about 1/100 the diameter of a human hair. The sugar energy source generates about 43 microwatts per square centimeter. This is the highest figure to date.
In addition, the new device is elastic, able to withstand temperatures up to 600 degrees Celsius. By adding a chip to a medical implant, the fuel cell can remain stable through the high-temperature sterilization process required for all implantable devices.
“Glucose is found everywhere in the body, and the idea is to harvest this readily available energy and use it to power implantable devices,” the scientists explained.
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