Innovative self-powered pacemaker receives first demonstration

A new self-powered artificial cardiac pacemaker has been demonstrated successfully for the first time by a team from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).

The device is operated semi-permanently by a flexible piezoelectric nanogenerator and was shown to be able to stimulate a rat's heart using electrical energy converted from the animal's own physical movements.

Researchers accomplished this by fabricating high-performance flexible nanogenerators with a bulk single-crystal PMN-PT thin film. The harvested energy reached up to 8.2 V and 0.22 mA via bending and pushing motions.

This could be a hugely beneficial advance, given the risks associated with repeated surgeries to replace pacemaker batteries among elderly patients.

Professor Keon Jae Lee, of the department of materials science and engineering at KAIST, said: "For clinical purposes, the current achievement will benefit the development of self-powered cardiac pacemakers, as well as prevent heart attacks via the real-time diagnosis of heart arrhythmia."

During 2012-13 in England, more than 40,000 people had a pacemaker fitted, making it one of the most common types of heart surgery.