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DEVICE THERAPY

Pacemaker powered by cardiac motion

Nature Reviews Cardiology volume 16, page 386 (2019)Cite this article

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Researchers have developed a nanogenerator that can harvest biomechanical energy from the motion of the heart and thereby power an implanted pacemaker. “Millions of patients have implanted pacemakers, which were first used in the 1950s,” explain Zhou Li and Zhong Lin Wang, senior authors on the paper published in Nature Communications. “Their batteries are still bulky and typically must be replaced every 5–12 years.” The investigators aim to design a pacemaker that can be implanted for the lifetime of a patient.

The researchers developed an implantable pacemaker comprising a power management unit, a pacemaker unit and a novel implantable triboelectric nanogenerator (iTENG), containing two triboelectric layers. The iTENG was placed between the heart and the pericardium of a pig; cardiac motion caused periodic contact and separation of the two triboelectric layers, generating electrical energy, which could be stored in the capacitor of the power management unit.

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Original article

Further reading

  • Cingolani, E. et al. Next-generation pacemakers: from small devices to biological pacemakers. Nat. Rev. Cardiol. 15, 139–150 (2018)

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  1. Nature Reviews Cardiology http://www.nature.com/nrcardio/

    Gregory B. Lim

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  1. Gregory B. Lim
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Correspondence to Gregory B. Lim.

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Lim, G.B. Pacemaker powered by cardiac motion. Nat Rev Cardiol 16, 386 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41569-019-0208-z

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