Slovak scientists are working on an infinite battery for a pacemaker

Bratislava, 8 September (TASR) – Slovak researchers are working on a project that can improve the lives of patients with pacemakers. In the heart machine, the batteries run out over years of use, so they need to be replaced, which requires surgery. Experts from the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS) and the Slovak University of Technology are developing a material system that could function as an “infinite battery”.

“In this project, we build on our previous experience and work with a special system of gallium nitride materials, which is a competitor to silicon technology. When the developed battery is inserted into the human body, we could indefinitely charge it with human potential. , the human movement, ” said Gabriel Vanko of the Institute of Electrical Engineering of the Slovak Academy of Sciences.

Therefore, scientists will use a person’s movement such as heartbeat or diaphragm movement during breathing, which does not end. “By vibrating the micromechanical part, the energy would be generated and then stored in the pacemaker power supply, and it would result that the torch would no longer have to be replaced regularly by surgery.” Vanko made it clear.

The material system developed by electrical engineers is biocompatible: it can adapt to a living organism. Scientists see its future in combination with sensors that could someday monitor human processes within the body, such as blood pressure measurement. “We are open to closer collaboration with clinicians in this area. We have involved a surgeon in the project who has worked with pacemakers and helped us in consulting: what practice would require, what we could design and how it could be combined. So far. we are in the initial phase, we have not yet reached the actual patient test “, summed up Vanko.