(August 12, 2015) Long-standing
concerns about portable electronics include the devices’ short battery life and
their contribution to e-waste. One group of scientists is now working on a way
to address both of these seeming unrelated issues at the same time. They report
in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces the development of a
biodegradable nanogenerator made with DNA that can harvest the energy from
everyday motion and turn it into electrical power.
Many people may not realize it, but the movements we often
take for granted — such as walking and tapping on our keyboards — release
energy that largely dissipates, unused. Several years ago, scientists figured
out how to capture some of that energy and convert it into electricity so we
might one day use it to power our mobile gadgetry. Achieving this would not
only untether us from wall outlets, but it would also reduce our demand on
fossil-fuel-based power sources. The first prototypes of these nanogenerators
are currently being developed in laboratories around the world. And now, one
group of scientists wants to add another feature to this technology:
biodegradability.
The researchers built a nanogenerator using a flexible,
biocompatible polymer film made out of polyvinylidene fluoride, or PVDF. To
improve the material’s energy-harvesting ability, they added DNA, which has
good electrical properties and is biocompatible and biodegradable. Their device
was powered with gentle tapping, and it lit up 22 to 55 light-emitting diodes.