Non-corrosive, low-toxicity gel-based microbattery from organic and organometallic molecules

Abstract

Microbatteries with safe, non-corrosive electrolyte chemistries can have an immediate positive impact on modern life applications, such as ingestible electronic pills and system-on-chip bioelectronics. Here a safe, non-corrosive and non-flammable microbattery is reported. A natural agarose hydrogel is the electrolyte-supporting matrix, and organic and organometallic molecules are the redox-active species. This device can safely meet the needs of ingestible medical microdevices as a primary battery. Additionally, this redox gel system can be used as a secondary battery for on-chip electronics applications, potentially enabling safe and cost-effective small-scale energy storage.