Dissolvable batteries made from gut bacteria

June 08, 2025

Scientists have developed a dissolvable battery using probiotics — live microorganisms that offer health benefits.

Powered by the same probiotics found in yogurt and health supplements, the device generates electricity for over 100 minutes and then dissolves into the environment.

Developed by a team led by Binghamton University’s researchers, the device is built on water-soluble paper and is a type of transient electronics.

Transient electronics

“Transient electronics can be used for biomedical and environmental applications, but they must disintegrate in a biosafe manner,” said Choi, a faculty member at the Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

“You don’t want to have toxic residues inside your body. That type of device is called bioresorbable electronics. For transient or bioresorbable electronics, the key challenge is the power source — but most power sources, like lithium-ion batteries, include toxic material.”

The device creates power sources that disappear without leaving toxic residues behind.

Researchers have also pointed out the Mission: Impossible movies, in which Tom Cruise is seen using a device that self-destructs five seconds after delivering the message. They highlighted that the electronics disintegrate into nothing in real life and are tough to make, and the hardest part of it is the battery.

Binghamton University’s researchers have researched over the past 20 years on disposable “papertronics”.

Choi and his student research team took lessons from their previous research into biobatteries and applied that knowledge to a new idea: In a paper recently published in the journal Small, they show the potential of using probiotics — live microorganisms that offer health benefits when ingested but are otherwise harmless to the environment or humans, according to a press release.

Maedeh Mohammadifar, PhD ’20, a graduate of Choi’s Bioelectronics and Microsystems Lab, developed the original dissolvable microbial fuel cell during her time as a Binghamton student.

Electricity-producing bacteria

“We used well-known electricity-producing bacteria, which is within biosafety level 1, so it is safe — but we were not sure what would happen if these bacteria were released into nature,” Choi said. “But whenever I made presentations at conferences, people would ask: So, you are using bacteria? Can we safely use that?”

In the study, researchers highlighted that the transient biobattery is powered by commercially available probiotics that dissolve harmlessly, releasing only beneficial microbes.

Power delivery can be fine-tuned from 4 min to over 100 min

“Fabricated on water-soluble or pH-responsive substrates, this biobattery capitalizes on a 15-strain probiotic blend to generate electricity across diverse electrode materials. By manipulating device length or encapsulating it with pH-sensitive polymers, power delivery can be fine-tuned from 4 min up to over 100 min. A single module outputs 4 µW of power, 47 µA of current, and an open-circuit voltage of 0.65 V,” said researchers in the study.

This groundbreaking design ushers in a new era of safe, effective transient bioenergy systems, opening unprecedented opportunities in biomedical implants, environmental sensors, and disposable electronics, according to researchers.