Who could have thought that natural processes in our body can be utilized as a source of energy. Say for example breathing or respiration. It is a bodily process of of taking in oxygen from inhaled air and releasing carbon dioxide by exhalation. Just try putting your palm near your nose and breath out, can you feel the air pressing against your palm? Energy can therefore be generated if piezoelectric effect would be put into consideration. Piezoelectricity means electricity resulting from pressure. The very principle applied in igniting those gas grills by push buttons.

All these things along with the utilization of nanotechnology, Engineering Professor Xudong Wang, postdoctoral Researcher Chengliang Sun and graduate student Jian Shi was able to come up with an awesome energy source. Their team engineered Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) to generate sufficient electrical energy from respiration to operate small electronic devices.

“We calculated that if we could make this material thin enough, small vibrations could produce a microwatt of electrical energy that could be useful for sensors or other devices implanted in the face,” Wang said.

All the principles are already there and the team just have to make the materials as thin as possible while preserving its piezoelectric properties.

What they’ve discovered could make way of the development of mini biomedical devices such glucose monitors or pacemaker battery charger. Our body got plenty of energy wastes like blood flow, motion, heat, respiration, etc. which offers a consistent source of power that could somehow be recycled to produce energy for a biomedical devices.