Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, EPFL, Station 9, Lausanne, 1015, Switzerland.
Adv Mater. 2022 Jun;34(24):e2109075. doi: 10.1002/adma.202109075. Epub 2022 May 12.
Next-generation implantable devices such as sensors, drug-delivery systems, and electroceuticals require efficient, reliable, and highly miniaturized power sources. Existing power sources such as the Li-I pacemaker battery exhibit limited scale-down potential without sacrificing capacity, and therefore, alternatives are needed to power miniaturized implants. This work shows that ceramic electrolytes can be used in potentially implantable glucose fuel cells with unprecedented miniaturization. Specifically, a ceramic glucose fuel cell-based on the proton-conducting electrolyte ceria-that is composed of a freestanding membrane of thickness below 400 nm and fully integrated into silicon for easy integration into bioelectronics is demonstrated. In contrast to polymeric membranes, all materials used are highly temperature stable, making thermal sterilization for implantation trivial. A peak power density of 43 µW cm , and an unusually high statistical verification of successful fabrication and electrochemical function across 150 devices for open-circuit voltage and 12 devices for power density, enabled by a specifically designed testing apparatus and protocol, is demonstrated. The findings demonstrate that ceramic-based micro-glucose-fuel-cells constitute the smallest potentially implantable power sources to date and are viable options to power the next generation of highly miniaturized implantable medical devices.
下一代植入式设备，如传感器、药物输送系统和电疗设备，需要高效、可靠和高度小型化的电源。现有的电源，如 Li-I 起搏器电池，在不牺牲容量的情况下，其缩小规模的潜力有限，因此需要替代电源来为小型化植入物供电。这项工作表明，陶瓷电解质可用于潜在的可植入葡萄糖燃料电池，实现前所未有的小型化。具体来说，展示了一种基于质子导体电解质氧化铈的陶瓷葡萄糖燃料电池，该电池由厚度低于 400nm 的独立膜组成，并完全集成到硅中，便于与生物电子设备集成。与聚合物膜不同，所有使用的材料都具有很高的温度稳定性，使得植入物的热消毒变得微不足道。通过专门设计的测试设备和协议，证明了峰值功率密度为 43 µW cm ，开路电压的 150 个器件和功率密度的 12 个器件的成功制造和电化学功能具有异常高的统计验证。研究结果表明，基于陶瓷的微型葡萄糖燃料电池构成了迄今为止最小的潜在可植入电源，是为下一代高度小型化植入式医疗设备供电的可行选择。
