Self-rechargeable cardiac pacemaker system with triboelectric nanogenerators

Abstract

Self-powered implantable devices have the potential to extend device operation time inside the body and reduce the necessity for high-risk repeated surgery. Without the technological innovation of in vivo energy harvesters driven by biomechanical energy, energy harvesters are insufficient and inconvenient to power titanium-packaged implantable medical devices. Here, we report on a commercial coin battery-sized high-performance inertia-driven triboelectric nanogenerator (I-TENG) based on body motion and gravity. We demonstrate that the enclosed five-stacked I-TENG converts mechanical energy into electricity at 4.9 μW/cm3 (root-mean-square output). In a preclinical test, we show that the device successfully harvests energy using real-time output voltage data monitored via Bluetooth and demonstrate the ability to charge a lithium-ion battery. Furthermore, we successfully integrate a cardiac pacemaker with the I-TENG, and confirm the ventricle pacing and sensing operation mode of the self-rechargeable cardiac pacemaker system. This proof-of-concept device may lead to the development of new self-rechargeable implantable medical devices.

Smart Textile Triboelectric Nanogenerators: Prospective Strategies for Improving Electricity Output Performance

“…In addition, the performance evaluation criterion of textile TENGs should still consider the special structural effect and wearing performance of textiles. (5) The application terminal of textile TENGs is the human body, which not only needs to have a high degree of fitness to meet the diverse and complex human motion and external environment variations but should also bring certain comfort and satisfaction to the daily wearing of the human body. Therefore, for the material selection of textile TENGs, it is best to choose materials with good affinity to human skin to avoid toxic materials or materials that will cause itching to human skin.…”

“…In general, the power needed to operate millions of wearable sensors is very small, typically at the microwatt to watt level. Although orderly energy supply modes can provide a part of the power for distributed electronic devices, the rest of the power must be provided by random energy sources in our living environment, including solar energy, vibration, motion, wind energy, and other resources [3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. What we expect is to make full use of any available resources in the environment where the device is deployed.…”

New strategies for energy supply of cardiac implantable devices

“…The TENG generated a maximum V oc of 65.2 V and energy of 0.495 µJ during each cardiac motion cycle, which is above the endocardial pacing threshold energy of 0.377 µJ. In a mongrel in vivo model, a five-staged TENG was shown to charge a lithium-ion battery by harvesting biomechanical body and gravity motion of a subcutaneous implantation site and enable ventricle pacing and sensing operation mode of the self-rechargeable cardiac pacemaker system [ 31 ]. TENGs can produce high voltage outputs but the gap between the friction layers needs to be protected from body fluids, otherwise it will significantly affect the output performance.…”

Recent Progress in Self-Powered Sensors Based on Triboelectric Nanogenerators

“…With the popularity of smart skin, TENG came into view due to its superior biocompatibility and portability. More and more research has been conducted on TENG in the smart skin field [57,58]. As shown in Figure 8a, Cao et al [59] demonstrated a TENG for intelligent electronic skin using a fish bladder membrane as friction.…”