Nanogenerator breakthrough can generate electricity from the blood in your veins
As researchers continue to develop micro-machines and implanted medical devices that live within our bodies we might need to find new ways to power them.
Cite or link to this article
Griffin, M. (2018) 'Nanogenerator breakthrough can generate electricity from the blood in your veins', 311 Institute, 7 January. Available at: https://www.311institute.com/nanogenerator-breakthrough-can-generate-electricity-from-the-blood-in-your-veins/ (Accessed: 1 October 2026).
Humanity has been generating electricity from flowing water for millennia using everything from watermills to huge hydro-electric dams, but now researchers in China have given new meaning to the decades old saying "There's electricity in our veins," and have managed to scale this machinery down to a size small enough to generate electrical power from something much much smaller, the blood running through our bodies.
Using principles similar to those used in some of the world’s largest hydro-electric dams a team of Chinese researchers from Fudan University have built a tiny, one dimensional nanogenerator that’s designed to sit inside veins and generate electricity from the flow of blood. And this isn’t the first time researchers have toyed with turning our blood streams into next generation energy sources, back in 2011 a team of Swiss researchers developed tiny turbines that generated electricity from the blood in human arteries but it had a flaw, it created lethal blood clots… and let’s face it that’s a really bad flaw.
The Chinese teams device, which was successfully tested on frogs, and which doesn’t cause blood clots, is less than half a micron in size and uses “an orderly array of carbon nanotubes wrapped around a polymeric core to generate power” using what the team call a “Fiber Fluidic Nanognerator,” or FFNG for short.
"The electricity is generated by the movement between the FFNG and the blood," said Huisheng Peng who led the research, "an electrical double layer is created around the fiber, and then the flowing solution distorts the symmetrical charge distribution, generating an electricity gradient along the devices long axis."
At the moment it’s not clear how much power the device can generate, but the team claim it is "high" compared to other miniature energy harvesting devices and that it has a power conversion efficient of more than 20 percent, and while the technology is still in its early stages the team are hopeful that one day the device could be used to power insulin pumps, pace makers and other implanted medical devices in people’s bodies. And who knows, maybe one day they’ll sit alongside the other nanobots in our bloodstreams as they hunt down disease and kill cancer from within, or power our bodies when we turn them into the next generation of chemical computers, and who's to say that the blood in our blood streams won't be artificial... but all that's another story.
The research was published in the journal Angewandte Chemie.
What this means for your organisation
Power is the implant bottleneck.
Researchers are building micro-machines and implanted medical devices, and they need new ways to power them. The Fudan team hopes its device could one day run insulin pumps and pace makers. This fits bio-electricity, which harvests power from the body itself to run implants without batteries.
Treat this as early research.
The device was tested on frogs, and the team admits its power output is not yet clear. It claims a power conversion efficiency of more than 20 percent. A Swiss turbine in 2011 produced lethal blood clots, so safety is the test to watch. Bio-electricity sits at a readiness level of 3, with wide use expected around 2050, so the right action is to watch.
Materials and China shape the field.
The device uses an orderly array of carbon nanotubes wrapped around a polymeric core. That ties its progress to materials supply and skills. It also comes from a Chinese university, in a field where China now produces about twice the high-quality research of the US. Leaders should track who is publishing.
Three questions for your next leadership meeting
- Which of our products depend on batteries that must be replaced inside the body?
- What safety evidence would we need before backing a blood-powered device?
- Who is tracking research from Chinese universities on our behalf?
The trends and technologies behind this story
From the 311 Starburst, the 311 Strategic Intelligence Unit’s map of the technologies and trends shaping the next 50 years.
Analysis by the 311 Strategic Intelligence Unit, from Matthew Griffin’s article and 311 data. First published on Fanatical Futurist.
FAQ
Why does this matter?
As researchers continue to develop micro-machines and implanted medical devices that live within our bodies we might need to find new ways to power them.
About the author
Matthew Griffin Founder, President and Futurist, 311 Institute
Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath."
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Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath." 17-time best selling author of the "Codex of the Future" series, Matthew is the Founder, President and Futurist of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm working with royal households, world leaders, G7, G20, and G77 governments, NGOs, and multi-national mid and mega cap firms to help them explore, shape, and lead the next 50 years of business and society.
An award-winning YouTube creator with over a million followers, with an unrivalled global reach and impact, Matthew is a highly sought-after international keynote speaker, lecturer, and mentor who collaborates with global leaders through the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to shape pivotal initiatives such as the UN’s AI for Humanity programme, the United Nations Conference of the Parties (UN COP), and the World Economic Forum in Davos.
As the former Global Head of Cloud, National Security, and Enterprise Sales for companies including Atos, Dell-EMC, and IBM, Matthew has a proven track record of building multi-billion dollar business units and turning failing divisions into market leaders. His ability to identify, analyse, and communicate the implications of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends is unparalleled, and his insights are trusted by many of the world’s most respected organisations, including ABB, Accenture, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi, Coca-Cola, Dentons, Deloitte, Dow Jones, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, Siemens AG and Siemens Energy, T-Mobile, UBS, VISA, Walmart, Workday, Worldpay and many others.
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Sources and further reading
- Fudan University fudan.edu.cn
- Abstract onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Source: first published by the 311 Institute on 7 January 2018. Cite as: Griffin, M. (2018). Nanogenerator breakthrough can generate electricity from the blood in your veins. 311 Institute. https://www.311institute.com/nanogenerator-breakthrough-can-generate-electricity-from-the-blood-in-your-veins/
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