PTI

•  New energy-storage device can use human blood or sweat to power itself

Washington, Aug 25: A team of six Indian-American researchers has developed a new energy-storage device which, besides being paper-thin, can use human blood or sweat to power itself.

The team, led by noted nanotechnologist Pulickel Ajayan of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), has developed a battery, which could easily be mistaken for a simple sheet of black paper.

Besides, it is lightweight, ultra thin, completely flexible, and geared towards meeting trickiest designs and energy requirements, the INDOlink web site said. “The semblance to paper is no accident: more than 90 per cent of the device is made up of cellulose, the same plant cells used in newsprint, loose leaf, lunch bags, and nearly every other type of paper,” writer Francis Assisi said.

The device can be rolled, twisted, folded, or cut into any number of shapes with no loss of mechanical integrity or efficiency. It even as the ability to function in temperatures up to 300 degrees Fahrenheit and down to 100 below zero, and can be printed like a paper.

“It’s essentially a regular piece of paper, but it’s made in a very intelligent way,” Robert Linhardt, co-author of the paper said. Along with use in small handheld electronics, it is billed as ideal for use in automobiles, aircrafts, and even boats. Besides Ajayan, the co-authors of the paper include Dr Nalamasu, Victor Pushparaj, Shaijumon Manikoth, A Shavani Kumar and Saravanababu Murugesan, each of whom graduated from prestigious Indian institutes like IISc, IIT etc.