---
title: "Scientists Have Turned Fish Scales into a Power Source"
description: "Scientists from Javdapur University have created a battery-less generator from fish scales. By harnessing the piezoelectric properties of the collagen in the fish scales, they were able to generate enough charge for 77 LED bulbs."
date: "2016-09-09"
modified: "2016-09-09"
authors:
  - name: "Jelor Gallego"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jelor-gallego"
url: "https://futurism.com/scientists-have-turned-fish-scales-into-a-power-source"
categories:
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "fish scales"
  - "india"
  - "piezoelectric generator"
---

# Scientists Have Turned Fish Scales into a Power Source

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Indian-researchers-recycle-fish-scales-into-energy-nanogenerator.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Getty Images/Dwight Eschliman\</em\>*

## One man's trash

[Ingestible electronics](<https://futurism.com/an-edible-battery-for-ingestible-robots-could-diagnose-diseases-from-inside-your-body>) are a major trend in medical science today. Things like pills that diagnose diseases and machines that dispense drugs inside the body are being produced to help us live just a little bit longer.

Now, another development in that field has just been announced. Indian scientists from Jadavpur University have been able to create [a battery-free generator from fish scales](<https://www.engadget.com/2016/09/06/indian-researchers-recycle-fish-scales-into-energy-nanogenerator/>), which could be the key to a biodegradable power source for ingestible devices.

In India, and much of the world, fish scales are nothing more than trash and waste. But the collagen they are made of has a very interesting property: it is piezoelectric. That means that, if stress is applied to it, it generates a charge.

That property has allowed the scientists to make an energy nanogenerator that is biodegradable and small enough to be ingested.

## Fishy Science

[Their study](<http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/apl/109/10/10.1063/1.4961623>), published in *Applied Physics Letters,* describes the process that went into making these tiny devices. First, carp scales were collected from a local fish market. Gold electrodes were then attached, and that was then laminated.

[![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/123205_web.jpg>)](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/123205_web.jpg>)
*Javdapur University*

"We wanted to explore what happens to the piezoelectric yield when a bunch of collagen nanofibrils are hierarchically well aligned and self-assembled in the fish scales," explained Dipankar Mandal, one of the authors of the study, [in a statement.](<http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-09/aiop-fc090216.php>)

"And we discovered that the piezoelectricity of the fish scale collagen is quite large (\~5 pC/N), which we were able to confirm via direct measurement."

The result is a clear, transparent piezoelectric generator that runs on gentle hand movements. A simple pinch lights up 50 LED bulbs, and the researchers were able to power up to 77 blue and green LED bulbs in their study.