Electronic contact lenses are a promising platform for medical sensors. With these devices a variety of vital signs and medical parameters can be monitored noninvasively and without the risk of foreign body response. However, one current limitation of this technology is the need for an external power supply, resulting in bulky, multi component devices. In this paper, we for the first time investigate and compare the application of abiotic glucose fuel cells and Mg/air batteries as alternative power supply technologies for electronic contact lenses. While abiotic glucose fuel cells harvest energy from metabolites present in tear fluid, Mg/air batteries provide electricity by the oxidation of a sacrificial anode. Considering the space available on standard contact lenses, our results indicate that approx. 40 μW and 2 μW can be generated by Mg/air batteries and glucose fuel cells for a period of at least 24 h, respectively. However, coating galvanic cells with the commonly used contact lens material pHEMA, results in drastically reduced performance, presumably due to hindered mass transport. Nevertheless, even under those circumstances a Mg/air battery can still provide about 7 μW for 24 h, which would already be sufficient for many electronic contact lens applications.

电子隐形眼镜是用于医疗传感器的有前途的平台。使用这些设备，可以无创地监测各种生命体征和医学参数，并且没有异物反应的风险。然而，该技术的当前局限性是需要外部电源，从而导致体积庞大的多组件设备。在本文中，我们首次研究并比较了非生物葡萄糖燃料电池和镁/空气电池作为电子隐形眼镜替代电源技术的应用。非生物葡萄糖燃料电池从眼泪液中存在的代谢物获取能量的同时，镁/空气电池通过牺牲阳极的氧化来提供电能。考虑到标准隐形眼镜的可用空间，我们的结果表明，镁/空气电池和葡萄糖燃料电池可分别产生40μW和2μW至少持续24 h的时间。但是，用通常使用的隐形眼镜材料pHEMA涂覆原电池会导致性能急剧下降，这可能是由于阻碍了质量传递。尽管如此，即使在这种情况下，镁/空气电池在24小时内仍可提供约7μW的功率，这对于许多电子隐形眼镜应用来说已经足够了。