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Researchers from Chinas Fudan University have created flexible batteries that can be implanted into humans as they do not have the toxic chemicals used to make traditional versions of the power source.

The team say that the breakthrough could have huge implications for medicines and treatments and will be a game changer in wearable and implanted technology.

Yonggang Wang, one of the researchers from Fudan, said: Current batteries like the lithium-ion ones used in medical implants generally come in rigid shapes.

Additionally, most of the reported flexible batteries are based on flammable organic or corrosive electrolytes, which suffer from safety hazards and poor biocompatibility for wearable devices, let alone implantable ones.

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The team created two flexible design batteries; one being a 2D belt comprised of electrode films over a steel mesh, and the other being a carbon nanotube fibre weave with nanoparticle electrodes both of which showed excellent performance.

The flexibility and small size of the batteries makes them suitable for implants, even on the brain, the researchers stated in their study published in the journal Chem.

Previous probes have shown brain-computer interfaces can help people with spinal injuries regain mobility as they can restore neural signal transmitters and receptors that have been damaged.

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But another huge breakthrough with the new batteries is that they can be used to treat cancer.

The carbon nanotube in the battery converted dissolved oxygen into hydroxide ions at an accelerated rate which can starve cancerous cells.

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Wang explained: "We can implant these fibre-shaped electrodes into the human body to consume essential oxygen, especially for areas that are difficult for injectable drugs to reach.

"Deoxygenation might even wipe out cancerous cells or pathogenic bacteria since they are very sensitive to changes in living environment pH. Of course, this is hypothetical right now, but we hope to investigate further with biologists and medical scientists."

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Dawn of the CYBORG? Bendable batteries created which can be implanted in humans - Express.co.uk