科学60秒:医疗仪器也能人肉充电
来源：沪江听写酷
2011-05-23 00:09
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Batteries add weight, and they need recharging. That’s serious business for implanted medical devices. When the batteries die, patients sometimes have to undergo another surgery. But what if there were a compact, flexible material that could ____1____ from the body’s own movement? That’s what Michael McAlpine’s lab at Princeton University designed. He was recently named to Technology Review's list of 35 top innovators under the age of 35.
The key is ____2____ of piezoelectric materials. These become electrically polarized when they’re subject to ____3____, and so movement or pressure can generate electricity. But they’re ordinarily made of hard, inflexible materials, which are also usually ____4____.
So McAlpine’s team created nanoscale piezoelectric devices. They’re ____5____ between layers of silicone. Which, as we know from breast implants, is both flexible and biocompatible.
At a recent talk, McAlpine said that one of the first commercial uses could be to replace batteries in kids’ LED-lit sneakers. But he hopes to see them one day power pacemakers. They could be implanted on the lungs. And so, to keep your heart beating, you’d just take a breath. Which is the usual procedure.
Batteries add weight, and they need recharging. That’s serious business for implanted medical devices. When the batteries die, patients sometimes have to undergo another surgery. But what if there were a compact, flexible material that could ____1____ from the body’s own movement? That’s what Michael McAlpine’s lab at Princeton University designed. He was recently named to Technology Review's list of 35 top innovators under the age of 35.
The key is ____2____ of piezoelectric materials. These become electrically polarized when they’re subject to ____3____, and so movement or pressure can generate electricity. But they’re ordinarily made of hard, inflexible materials, which are also usually ____4____.
So McAlpine’s team created nanoscale piezoelectric devices. They’re ____5____ between layers of silicone. Which, as we know from breast implants, is both flexible and biocompatible.
At a recent talk, McAlpine said that one of the first commercial uses could be to replace batteries in kids’ LED-lit sneakers. But he hopes to see them one day power pacemakers. They could be implanted on the lungs. And so, to keep your heart beating, you’d just take a breath. Which is the usual procedure.
harvest energy
a novel form
mechanical stress
toxic
sequestered
电池会增加重量，而且需要充电。电池对于植入式医疗仪器来说非常重要。当电池停止工作，病人有时就必须进行另一场手术。但如果有一种致密柔韧的材料，它可以从自身肢体动作收集能量，那会如何呢？普林斯顿大学迈克尔·麦卡尔平实验室就发明了这种材料。迈克尔·麦卡尔平近日被《技术评论》提名为35岁以下最优秀的35位发明家之一。
这次发明的关键在于压电材料形态的创新。压电材料受到机械应力时会发生电偏振，因此运动和压力都可以产生电能。但是一般的压电材料都非常硬，而且不易弯曲，通常还有毒性。
因此麦卡尔平的队伍发明了纳米压电仪器。它们被层层的硅树脂所隔开。就像我们从隆胸手术所知道的那样，硅树脂非常柔韧，而且不会引起人体排斥。
在最近的一次谈话中，麦卡尔平表示这种材料的首次商业应用可能是代替儿童运动鞋中发光的LED。但是他希望有一天能看见这些材料应用在电力心脏起搏器上。它们可以移植在肺里面。而且，手术之后只需要呼吸就可以让你的心脏持续跳动，这个过程普通得不能再普通了。