Congratulations to Arwa for a meticulous research she has carried out with Rabab, Kholod, Ghoneim, Marlon, Amani, Abdurrahman, Marwane, Joanna, Aftab, Prof. Nivine Khachab and myself!
Last October Arwa pitched our idea on smart dental brace to Falling Walls 2016 in Berlin. Presently working on tech transfer, this is an obvious game changing technology (https://innovation.kaust.edu.sa/technologies/smart-dental-brace/).
To
augment the quality of our life, fully compliant personalized advanced
healthcare electronic system is pivotal. One of the major requirements to
implement such systems is a physically flexible high performance biocompatible
energy storage (battery). However, the status-quo options do not match all of
these attributes simultaneously and we also lack in an effective integration
strategy to integrate them in complex architecture such as orthodontic domain
in human body. Here we show, a physically complaint lithium ion micro-battery
(236 mg) with an unprecedented
volumetric energy (the ratio of energy to device geometrical size) of 200
mWh/cm3 after 120 cycles of continuous operation. Our results of 90 % viability test confirmed
the battery's biocompatibility. We also show seamless integration of the
developed battery in an optoelectronic system embedded in a 3D printed smart
dental brace. We foresee the resultant orthodontic system as a personalized
advanced healthcare application which could serve in faster bone regeneration
and enhanced enamel healthcare protection and subsequently reducing the overall
healthcare cost.
One step forward toward our goal to change the way we live our life - live!