[Scientists in laboratory in University of Cambridge’s Department of Chemistry]
[PhD researcher Stephen O’Neil mixing a solution which is used to make jelly]
[Scientist holding a ‘jelly battery]
[‘Jelly battery’ stretched]
[PhD researcher Stephen O’Neil transferring jelly strips from one petri dish to another]
[PhD researcher Stephen O’Neil stretching a jelly strip]
Stephen O’Neil (interview): “So, this is an example of one of the pieces of gel that we use to make up the battery. As you can see it’s very soft and stretchable just like jelly really, and with about five of these stuck together we can make the hydrogel power source.”
[PhD researcher Stephen O’Neil in laboratory]
[Test tubes]
Stephen O’Neil (interview): “So, electronics as we know, like our phones and our computers are very rigid, whereas our body is mostly water, it’s very soft. If you can imagine the brain is soft and stretchy so what we tried to do is make electronics soft and stretchy to be able to interface either inside our body or on our skin, and the way we did this was we made hydrogel materials that are ionically conductive and by mimicking the electric eel, we were able to make a power source out of these hydrogel materials which are soft and stretchy, sort of like our brains, which reduces any inflammation or scarring that the body may have.”
[PhD researcher Stephen O’Neil mixing solution]
[PhD researcher Stephen O’Neil opening fridge]
[PhD researcher Stephen O’Neil closing fridge]
Jade McCune (interview): “So, there are lot of examples of other Hydrogels that can act as a power source. What’s different here is the fact that we have managed to create a sticky power source that sticks together so rather than having one discreet material where we can have this happen, we have different components separated out and we can stick them together which makes the power source stretchable for the first time. So, because of the reversible cross-links that are between the different Hydrogel power source components we’re able to stretch the power source and also stick it together.”
[Laptop screen showing the chemical reactions the hydrogel components make to make an electric current]
[Researcher in a laboratory mixing solutions in a test tube]
Jade McCune (interview): “The demonstration of stretchability means that if you were to put them on to your skin and wear them as a wearable you could have flex of your skin, of your muscles, and it wouldn’t change the performance of the device itself. And similarly in the body if you were to have them particularly in robust places like joints, if we’re thinking of robotics or limb replacements, then these are areas where you feel real force within your body and having a material that can withstand that is really important.”
[PhD researcher Stephen O’Neil mixing purple coloured solution used to make hydrogel strips]
Stephen O’Neil (interview): “The ultimate goal is for us to implant these power sources inside someone’s body and then they can last over several days or weeks outputting power to power these devices which can either continuously record or continuously act as therapy for example for things like deep brain stimulation for trying to cure diseases like Parkinson’s. We can do this by stimulating the neurons deep in our brain and to apply the power we can use soft and stretchy power sources.”
[Entrance to Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry at University of Cambridge]
[Exteriors of Department of Chemistry at University of Cambridge]
This script was provided by The Associated Press.