This Bothers Me
Around the geek sites there’s much buzz about a “urine powered” battery.
This is just wrong. And it’s driving me nuts.
- It’s not piss powered. The piss is the electrolyte, allowing ionic conduction (but not electronic conduction) when added. The electronic current must then flow through the device, completing the circuit. The electrochemical reaction at the electrode is a standard redox couple driven not by the piss, but by the potential difference between the Mg and the Cu. It’s more like a piss switch.
- The tech has been around for a long time. The salt solution activated (key word) cells have seen a lot of use in deep sea applications.
Why piss is needed is beyond me. Table salt and water would be fine. Remember: piss is poisonous to the body, so it’s not like this would make a very practical implantable device out side the bladder or urethra, never mind that it’s not rechargeable.
Luckily, the paper is titled “Urine-activated paper batteries for biosystems” so the misinfomred hype doesn’t stem directly from the research.
Update: I read the paper, rather than the press release. The specific idea is for using the urine as a sample and a switch. No energy from pee. Whew and it’s a neat idea. We’re safe from R. Kelly for now.