A low cost, disposable cable-shaped Al-air battery for portable biosensors

A disposable cable-shaped flexible battery is presented using a simple, low cost manufacturing process. The working principle of an aluminum-air galvanic cell is used for the cable-shaped battery to power portable and point-of-care medical devices. The battery is catalyzed with a carbon nanotube (CN...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of micromechanics and microengineering 2016-05, Vol.26 (5), p.55011-55018
Main Authors: Fotouhi, Gareth, Ogier, Caleb, Kim, Jong-Hoon, Kim, Sooyeun, Cao, Guozhong, Shen, Amy Q, Kramlich, John, Chung, Jae-Hyun
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activation
Aluminum
aluminum-air battery
battery
Biosensors
carbon nanotube
Electric wire
Electrolytic cells
Low cost
Metal air batteries
Portability
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Summary:A disposable cable-shaped flexible battery is presented using a simple, low cost manufacturing process. The working principle of an aluminum-air galvanic cell is used for the cable-shaped battery to power portable and point-of-care medical devices. The battery is catalyzed with a carbon nanotube (CNT)-paper matrix. A scalable manufacturing process using a lathe is developed to wrap a paper layer and a CNT-paper matrix on an aluminum wire. The matrix is then wrapped with a silver-plated copper wire to form the battery cell. The battery is activated through absorption of electrolytes including phosphate-buffered saline, NaOH, urine, saliva, and blood into the CNT-paper matrix. The maximum electric power using a 10 mm-long battery cell is over 1.5 mW. As a demonstration, an LED is powered using two groups of four batteries in parallel connected in series. Considering the material composition and the cable-shaped configuration, the battery is fully disposable, flexible, and potentially compatible with portable biosensors through activation by either reagents or biological fluids.
ISSN:0960-1317
1361-6439
DOI:10.1088/0960-1317/26/5/055011