An engineering professor at New York State’s Binghamton University has devised a paper battery that folds down to the size of a matchbook. The pocket-portable power supply could be ideal for use in remote or harsh locations.
The battery’s positive terminal is a form of nickel lightly coating one side of a sheet of ordinary printer paper. The negative terminal is treated carbon painted on the other side of the sheet. The fuel is a few drops of dirty water. As the water’s bacteria respirate, the byproducts set a current running along the treated paper. The microwatt-scale battery, which cost 5 cents to make, is biodegradable when spent.
TRENDPOST: A low-power, lightweight battery is ideal for running biosensors and medical diagnostic procedures in rural, undeveloped areas. The “Binghamton battery” could make medical diagnostics more widely available in the developing world as well as in less-settled areas of the American continents.
