MIT engineers have developed microscopic batteries designed to power cell-sized robots. Despite measuring just 0.1 millimeters long and 0.002 millimeters thick, or roughly the thickness of a human hair, it’s capable of capturing oxygen from air.
The battery can then use that air to oxidize zinc, creating a current with a potential of up to 1 volt, enough to power a small circuit, sensor, or actuator. One other advantage of this zinc-air battery is that it has a longer lifespan than many other types of batteries due to their high energy density. This prototype used a wire to connect their battery to an external device, but the researchers plan to eventually build robots in which the battery is incorporated into a device.
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We think this is going to be very enabling for robotics. We’re building robotic functions onto the battery and starting to put these components together into devices,” said Michael Strano, the Carbon P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT and the senior author of the study.
