Direct in situ disinfection in portable water bottles could serve as the last line of defence for ensuring safe drinking water, especially in rural and disaster-stricken areas. However, limited disinfection technologies are available for this decentralized application due to the requirements of chemical inputs, a reliable energy supply and/or complicated modular constructions. Here we realized efficient in situ disinfection in a portable water bottle by directly harvesting the electrostatic charges induced by walking to stimulate electroporation. We fabricated a flexible non-metallic polypyrrole electrode with densely and uniformly distributed nanorods through nanopatterning and pasted it into a compact water bottle. Walking-induced electrostatic charges on the body surface can flow through a low-resistance path and accumulate on the nanorod tips to enhance local electric fields. These accumulated charges are sufficient to stimulate electroporation to realize the complete disinfection (>99.9999% inactivation) of a broad spectrum of microorganisms in a 500-ml water bottle within 10 minutes of walking.
Young-Jun Kim
My research focuses generating static electricity by mechanical energy and, use it for biomedical applications.