Implantable batteries could run on body’s oxygen

Replacing waning batteries in implantable medical devices usually means invasive surgery. A new battery designed to run on the body's oxygen and tested in rats hints at a way to power medical sensors and simulators for much longer than is possible with existing batteries ( Chem 2024, DOI: 10.1016/j.chempr.2024.02.012 ). Batteries are the best option available today for powering implantable electronics. But they have limited lifetimes. So researchers have been trying to develop devices that generate power via chemical reactions with glucose or enzymes found in the body. Xizheng Liu of Tianjin University of Technology, Pingli Wu of Hebei University, Yonggang Wang of Fudan University, and colleagues decided to use the body's oxygen as a continuous energy source in a metal-oxygen battery. Metal-oxygen batteries have theoretical energy densities 5–10 times greater than the lithium-based implantable batteries used today, Liu says. The soft, flexible battery has an anode made of a