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Over the years I posted a number of news on “labs on a chip”, that is the creation of diagnostic chips that can detect viruses and bacteria. These are particularly useful in areas where it is very difficult to reach a diagnostic lab and quite significant progress was made in the breath of analyses that can be performed.
One crucial aspect remains powering the chip. In remote areas electrical power remains an issue (although portable accumulators and solar cells are becoming common).
A team at the university of Binghamton has come up with an ingenious solution: they have created a power cells that can work using saliva.
What is fascinating is that they are using bacteria in the paper based fuel cells. The bacteria a freeze dried and get reactivated by a drop of saliva. By placing 16 bacterial cells in sequence they have been able to generate sufficient power to light a LED, the power output is in the order of a few microwatt per square centimetre. This power is sufficient to activate a number of “lab on a chip” to detect the presence of a specific virus or bacteria. More complex one would require a few milliwatt, and that is beyond the current possibilities although the researchers are confident they will be able to increase the power budget.
The University of Binghamton is not new to using bacteria for generating electricity. In 2016 they created bacterial power cells using cyanobacteria (watch the clip…).
I am not convinced that this innovation will actually provide a viable solution given the possibility to use micro solar cells and micro accumulators, but I have to admit that the possibility of using bacteria to generate power is intriguing….
