A breakthrough in disposable fuel cells ICREA Professor Neus Sabaté and her team at the Instituto de Microelectrónica de Barcelona, are developing a new kind of fuel cell that can power diagnostic readers from a bodily fluid being analysed. The fuel cells and the diagnostic devices in the SUPERCELL project are made from paper Scientists often say
they have put ‘blood, sweat and tears’ into their work but with the SUPERCELL project this is almost a literal description of the research. That’s because the project’s objective is to extract enough energy from biological fluids like blood, urine and sweat to power biosensor devices. Such devices could have practical uses in healthcare, for example: pregnancy detection or diabetes management. To that end, the project is developing a new generation of single-use, disposable and low environmental impact fuel cells, representing a significant milestone in the fuel cell field. SUPERCELL is a project that drives the kinds of manufacturing and financial efficiencies that make it an irresistible innovation. As an alternative power source for diagnostic micro devices in healthcare, the potential is enormous.
Paper powered diagnosis “This is about giving some power to already existing diagnostic paper devices. I thought maybe I can fabricate both in the same platform, so if we can use paper to fabricate a diagnostic device, I can also fabricate the fuel
SuperCell
Single-Use paPER-based fuel CELLS The SUPERCELL project is developing a new generation of single use, low environmental impact fuel cells that can run on the biological samples being analysed, such as urine or blood, which is useful for point-of-care healthcare devices. Neus Sabaté, ICREA Research Professor Instituto de Microelectrónica de Barcelona, IMB-CNM (CSIC), C/ del Til·lers Campus Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès (Bellaterra) Barcelona (Spain) T: +34 935 947 700 ext. 2116 E: neus.sabate@imb-cnm.csic.es W: http://www.speedresearchgroup. com/supercell/ Neus Sabaté is a Physicist and ICREA Professor that is passionate about microsystem devices development. She works at the Microelectronics Institute of Barcelona (CSIC). Along her career, she has transitioned from the development of industrial-oriented sensors in silicon technology to single use point-of-care devices made with rapid fabrication techniques.
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cells within the same platform, in the same materials,” said Sabaté. “If people use this paper device to diagnose biological liquids, then I may also extract the energy needed to fuel the reader from the same fluids. The idea is to have everything integrated – so that the liquid you analyse is the same that provides you the energy to make the analysis.” Whilst you can extract power from blood, glucose and urea, not all body fluids have molecules that are suitable for generating electricity and you only produce microwatts from them. The end user applications therefore, need to be carefully considered. However, the advances demonstrated in this research should not be underestimated. Traditionally there has been a reliance on the use of bulky, battery-powered readers, which is only cost-effective if the device is used thousands of times – therefore these are often limited to the hospital environment.
Cheap and biodegradable
very practical. I realised a capillary could work as a natural pump. Of course, if you work with paper it will saturate and the flow will stop, so instead of fuel cells working for a long time, I started to think about them working for several minutes. If you think you can have a fuel cell working for several minutes then you are not going to focus on powering phones and things like that, and it makes no sense to power long-lasting lab-on-a-chip devices but instead to power disposable paper microfluidic devices. Overall, The aim was to fabricate a power source that follows the same lifecycle of the diagnostic test.” The devices, if further developed and mass produced, would answer a worldwide need for cheap, accessible healthcare technology which can be used in the home setting. The implications these devices would have for third world healthcare are also exciting. Beyond healthcare, other industrial sectors could also benefit, such as the fitness industry, where sweat monitoring, for instance, might have benefits. Neus Sabaté is patenting designs and making inroads into industry, showing that sometimes the simplest technological innovation has the strongest, widest appeal. “This is basic science and basic technology but you know, engineering will change the world,” states Sabaté, “Scientists create the next industries.”
There are many advantages with a paper fuelcell, as Sabaté explains: “It’s cheap to produce and environmentally friendly. You don’t need much energy to produce these in the fabrication process and you don’t pollute with them. “What is motivating me a lot is that I use cheap technology and I hope to start by creating an industry here in Barcelona. I don’t need to fabricate this in say, China, because it is cheaper to do that, I can just as easily do this in Barcelona.”
Less is more One of the breakthroughs in the direction of the research for Neus, came from finding a suitable, simple method to pump fuel in the cell. “We had to pump fuel to make fuel cells work and I wanted to do it with the least amount of components. We wanted to simplify the design and the fabrication techniques as we are very application oriented, so the concept we came up with was
Fig 1 (a) Scheme of the individual layers forming the packaged microfluidic paper-based device. Numbers from 1 to 8 indicate the layer number whereas figures in μm account for the layer thickness. (b) Front-view of the sealed paper device. (c) Side-view of the paper fuel cell. (d) External connections using a PMMA holder.
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