Self-powered implantable electronic medical devices research based on triboelectric nanogenerator

Abstract

The working life of implantable electronic medical devices, such as cardiac pacemaker, deep brain stimulator, nerve stimulator and so on, was limited by the capacity of their batteries. To solve this problem, in this paper we have fabricated an implanted triboelectric nanogenerator (iTENG). It can convert biomechanical energy from organ movement into electrical energy through a conjunction of triboelectrification and electrostatic induction, which produced by the contact and separation of a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) film and an aluminum sheet with micro/nano structures under the external force. This working mode was defined as the vertical contact-separation working mode. The size of iTENG is 1.2 cm×1.2 cm, and it was packaged by biocompatible PDMS. In the in vitro experiment, the iTENG generated an open circuit voltage (Voc) of 12 V, a short circuit current (Isc) of 0.25 μA, and a peak power density of 8.44 mW/m2, respectively. When implanted subdermal at rat's left chest, the in vivoVoc and Isc of iTENG were also detected, which were 3.73 V and 0.14 μA, respectively. By integrated with the power management system, iTENG can be applied to power the implantable electronic medical devices, achieving a self-powered imlpantable electronic medical devices.