A new type of technology that is being developed today revolves around creating various biological nanodevices that can be used for attaining a diagnosis and for varying therapeutic interventions. One huge problem that occurs when designing these types of biotechnologies is that they need to be wireless to ensure unrestricted access to parts of the body. In order to accomplish this, there needs to be a continual source of electrical energy that can be utilized in unusual environments such as the human body.
Previous efforts to accomplish this includes the development of a direct current nano generator that uses ultrasonic waves. This breakthrough was made by Dr. Zhong Lin Wang, who is a COE distinguished professor and director of the Center for Nanostructure Characterization at Georgia Tech. Dr. Wang's research resulted in the creating of a nanogenerator that was able to take hydraulic energy from within the human body, such as a heart beat or blood flow, and convert it into electrical energy. Although this was an amazing find, improvements needed to be made in order to make it more practical for real life applications.
Recent developments from researchers from the State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials at Donghua University located in in Shanghai, China and the Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam, Germany include building a 980 nm laser driven Dye Sensitized Solar Cell that can function even when it is covered by a thick layer of biological tissue. This is possible because these tissues have a high transparency to this specific frequency of light. This photovoltaic cell is created by utilizing rare nanophosphors that absorb light and then send out a glow that, in turn, excites solar cells to make electricity. It is capable of providing a maximum output of 0.28 to 0.02 mW of energy, even after being covered with 1 to 6 layers of pig intestine that averaged about 1 mm thick each. This amount of energy is enough to power a large variety of biotechnology.
This development is in its primary stages of research and scientists are still looking for ways to improve. Some of these desired improvements include making all of the components more biologically compatible, improving conversion efficiency, and making the cell even smaller in order to increase it application.
(Information was Provided by Nanowerk-Nanoscale Power Plants and Nanowerk- Photovoltaic Cells to Power Biological Nanorobots Inside the Body)
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