Indian Scientists Develop Piezoelectric Nanogenerator Using Fish Scale Biowaste

Fish scales-a bio waste has been put to use as a biodegradable energy harvester to harness sustainable green energy source for next generation self-powered implantable medical devices. The raw waste which contains collagen fibers that possess a piezoelectric property, could also bear the potential for development of personal portable electronics with reduced e-waste elements.

waste-fish-scales-bioenergy-harvester

Researchers at Jadavpur University have developed this prototype bio-piezoelectric nanogenerator (BPNG) from the above mentioned bio-waste. They first collected hard, raw fish scales from a fish processing market and used a demineralization process to make them transparent and flexible. Attaching electrodes to them they were capable of scavenging surrounding mechanical energies including body movements, sound vibrations and wind flow.

The possibility of using fish scales comes thanks to their collagen fibres, which contain a "piezoelectric" property, whereby electric charge is created when a mechanical stress is applied.The breakthrough can deliver on promise of effectively reducing e-waste with development of value-added products.

What makes the device special is the fact that the team's work is the first known demonstration of the direct piezoelectric effect of fish scales from electricity generated by a bio-piezoelectric nanogenerator under mechanical stimuli -without the need for any post-electrical poling treatments.

The myriad applications under it could include- biocompatible, biodegradable, edible electronics; e-healthcare monitoring portable devices, in vitro and in vivo diagnostics etc. The researchers quoted their goal is to implant a bio-piezoelectric nano-generator into human heart for pacemaker devices, where it will continuously generate power from heartbeats for the device's operation with almost nil problems of bio-compatibility since heart tissue also is composed of collagen.

The study was published in the journal#-Link-Snipped-#

Source:Welcome To IANS Live - SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY

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