The project was led by Dr Yujia Zhang from Chemistry with proof-of-concept studies carried out by Ming Lei and members of his group. Ming said, “Cardiac arrhythmia is a leading cause of death worldwide. Our proof-of-concept application in animal models demonstrates an exciting new avenue of wireless and biodegradable devices for the management of arrhythmias.”
The development of tiny smart devices, smaller than a few cubic millimeters, demands equally small power sources. For minimally invasive biomedical devices that interact with biological tissues, these power sources must be fabricated from soft materials. Ideally, these should also have features such as high capacity, biocompatibility and biodegradability, triggerable activation, and the ability to be controlled remotely. To date, there has been no battery that can fulfil these requirements all at once.
To address these requirements, researchers from the University of Oxford’s Department of Chemistry and Department of Pharmacology have developed a miniature, soft lithium-ion battery constructed from biocompatible hydrogel droplets. Surfactant-supported assembly (assembly aided by soap-like molecules), a technique reported by the same group last year in the journal Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06295-y), is used to connect three microscale droplets of 10 nanolitres volume. Different lithium-ion particles contained in each of the two ends then generate the output energy.
A patent application has been filed through Oxford University Innovation. The research opens the way to developing tiny bio-integrated devices, with a range of applications in robotics, biology, and medicine.
A full copy of the paper can be found here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44286-024-00136-z