Power Can be Harnessed from Fish Scale

The way technology is getting developed, you never know where it will take you to. Every day we wake up and something new has arrived on our plate to get astonished. Today we are going to explore an interesting but lesser-known scientific discovery that will surely leave you in awe. Some Physicists have discovered a way to make a tiny electric generator from the skin of fish. Sounding too fishy? Not at all. Allow me to explain from the beginning.

Many of us have heard of piezoelectric materials from our school science books. What are piezoelectric materials? In short, piezoelectric materials are some kind of power harvesters. And how do they harvest power? Let us see that in detail. In this universe, there is certain kind of materials which can produce electricity in response to vibration or mechanical stresses made upon it. These materials are called piezoelectric materials. There are a lot of piezoelectric materials available on this earth. Some of those are well known are, e.g. Quartz, Rochelle Salt, Topaz, etc. Not only those, there are some day-to-day used materials such as silk, wood, enamel, bone, hair, rubber dentin, etc. also fall under the piezoelectric material category. In this article we will talk about another piezoelectric material named Collagen that is found in living animal body; protein to be specific.

Now let us get back to fish. The collagen found in fish scales, bones, and tails have piezoelectric properties. Researchers of Jadavpur University(India) found that if any stress is applied by movements or pressure on the collagen fiber then electrical energy can be generated. The physicists (or ‘Fish’ycists) call it a “bio-piezoelectric nanogenerator” that can power up self-powered electronics devices.

Power can be harnessed from the device they made from a wide variety of body or machinery movements, sound vibrations, and wind flow. It is initially demonstrated that with the help of finger touch to the derived fiber from the fish collagen can lighten up to 50 LEDs (in electrical term ~14 volts).

Collagen being a bio-degradable material made this scientific breakthrough even more advantageous. With adequate research and advancements, this technology can be used to power up self-sustained power electronic devices. Such one of the life-saving devices is a pacemaker, the artificial heart. Scientists expect, in the future, this nanogenerator can be placed in the heart along with the pacemaker. The movement of the heart will be transferred to energy with this nanogenerator and the pacemaker will be powered by it. And at times when a pacemaker will not be necessary, it will be degraded naturally. As heart muscle also contains collagen nanogenerator is expected to be very compatible with it.

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