Capacitor charging using aluminum/phosphate-based cell

Abstract

Implantable devices, such as implantable glucose biosensors, require a power source, which may be provided by charging of a battery. The most immediate challenges facing implantable devices include (1) a high desire that implantable devices are self-powered and (2) the power source that can drive implantable devices must not add much weight to the implantable device. Therefore, it is important to explore innovative nanotechnologies that harvest energy from the environment for self-powering these implantable devices. Little or no work has been done on the conversion of the chemical energy stored in aluminum (Al)-phosphate cell based on the activation of Al using ZnO nanociystal modifiers as a potential power source for implantable devices. In this work emphasis has been placed on the development Al-phosphate cell as a ‘green’ alternative to the traditional enzymatic biofuel cells for the conversion of the chemical energy stored in Al to power a light emitting diode (LED) via a capacitor energy storage circuit. The LED was powered by a capacitor based energy storage circuit using power generated by the Al-phosphate cell. Two Al-phosphate cells were connected in series and were used to charge the capacitors in parallel and then discharged the capacitors in series in order to amplify the voltage generated by the hybrid cells to power the LED. The optimal capacitance was observed to be 1000 μΡ for each hybrid cell. The use of capacitor charging system increase the power output from 210 μW to 4 mW compared to the two Al-phosphate hybrid cells connected in series without capacitors. This novel approach to energy generation has great potential to be utilized in powering implantable devices.