The electric eel inspired physicist Alessandro Volta to invent the first battery, and it is now paving the way for advancements in current battery technology.
As the world’s demand for portable energy grows, researchers are seeking ways to upgrade existing battery technology, according to Daily Beast.
Italian physicist Alessandro Volta harnessed fundamental electrochemical principles when he invented the first battery in 1800.
Essentially, the combination of two different materials, usually metals, creates a chemical reaction that causes electrons to move from one material to another. This flow of electrons represents portable energy, which can be harnessed to generate electricity.
The first materials humans used to produce batteries were copper and zinc. Today’s best batteries, which produce the highest power output in the smallest size, combine metallic lithium with various other metal compounds. Many improvements have been made over the decades, but modern batteries still rely on an approach similar to Volta’s.
Inspiration from the Electric Eel
Before Volta’s battery, the only way to generate electricity was to rub materials together, such as silk on glass, to collect static electricity. This was not an easy or practical way to produce useful electrical energy.
Volta knew that electric eels have a special organ used to generate electricity. He reasoned that if he could mimic its operation, he might discover a new way to produce electricity.
The organ that generates electricity in an electric eel consists of stacked cells that resemble a roll of coins. Therefore, physicist Volta cut disk-like shapes from different materials and began stacking them in various sequences to see if he could generate electricity.
The electric eel inspired Volta to create the first battery. (Photo: Shutterstock).
However, these experiments did not yield breakthroughs until he tried combining copper disks with zinc disks, separated by paper soaked in saltwater.
This arrangement accidentally generated electricity, and the voltage produced corresponded to the height of the stack. Volta thought he had discovered the secret of how electric eels generate electricity and had effectively created a simulated version of the organ that generates electricity in the creature. Thus, he initially called his discovery an “artificial electric organ.” However, that was not the case.
Currently, scientists understand that the electrochemical reactions between the different materials in Volta’s experiment have nothing to do with how eels generate electricity. Instead, it uses a mechanism similar to how human nerve cells generate electrical signals, but on a much larger scale.
Specialized cells in the electric organ of this creature pump ions across a semipermeable membrane to create a charge difference between the inside and outside of the membrane.
When the tiny pore gates in the membrane open, the rapid flow of ions from one side to the other generates an electric current. Eels can simultaneously open all membrane gates at will to produce a large current, which they then discharge to target prey.
Subsequent Efforts
Electric eels do not shock their prey to death. They only stun them with electricity before attacking. An eel can generate hundreds of volts, but the current intensity does not last long enough to kill its prey. Each electric pulse from an eel lasts only a few milliseconds and transmits less than one ampere.
Like Volta, some modern scientists have also found their inspiration in electric eels to transform battery technology.
Physicist Volta presenting his invention to King Napoleon. (Photo: Bridgeman Images).
A group of scientists from the United States and Switzerland is studying a new type of battery inspired by electric eels. They hope that one day, energy from this type of battery will be useful for powering medical implants and soft robots. However, the research team acknowledges that they have a long way to go.
“The electric organs in electric eels are very sophisticated. They provide energy much better than we do,” said Michael Mayer, a member of the research team from the University of Fribourg. Thus, research on electric eels continues.
In 2019, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to three scientists who developed lithium-ion batteries. When awarding the prize, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences stated that their work had “laid the foundation for a ‘wireless’ society that does not rely on fossil fuels.”
This statement is partly true as lithium-ion batteries currently power almost all handheld wireless devices. However, the claim regarding a “society that does not use fossil fuels” still needs further scrutiny, as today’s lithium-ion batteries are recharged with electricity, which is often generated by burning fossil fuels.
Yet by the end of that year, scientists from the Smithsonian Institution announced the discovery of a new species of South American electric eel. This is considered the “strongest biological generator” known on Earth.
Researchers recorded the discharge of an eel at 860 volts, significantly higher than the discharge of the previously record-holding species.
