Ingestible battery ‘could help power medical devices’

Ingestible devices for diagnosing and treating disease could be powered by safely edible batteries in future, based on new research.

A team from Carnegie Mellon University has been working to create battery technology made with melanin pigments, which are naturally found in the skin, hair and eyes, which can deliver variable power output levels.

For example, a five milliwatt device can be powered for up to 18 hours using 600 milligrams of active melanin material as a cathode. This is less than lithium-ion technology can provide, but high enough to power an ingestible drug-delivery or sensing device.

Currently, implanted devices intended for long-term use such as pacemakers run on toxic batteries sealed away from contact with the rest of the body, but low-power repeat applications that are meant to be swallowed would work better with non-toxic, degradable batteries.

Project leader Dr Christopher Bettinger said: "The beauty is that by definition an ingestible, degradable device is in the body for no longer than 20 hours or so. Even if you have marginal performance, which we do, that's all you need."

The team is also looking into the potential of edible batteries made with other biomaterials, such as pectin, a plant-derived compound used as a gelling agent in jams and jellies.

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