In the future, it may be possible to charge your phone just by holding it in your hand.

Chinese scientists have developed an extraordinary subcutaneous wireless charger that they hope could support biodegradable drug delivery systems in the future. The new implant was described in a paper published in the journal Science Advances. According to the South China Morning Post, the prototype of the system shows that it is both biodegradable and flexible.

The new paper says that although scientists have previously developed biodegradable power supply units, they have not been able to produce the power needed for purely biomedical applications. Therefore, the researchers state that they are trying to create a new unit that is both biodegradable and capable of producing the right amount of power.

The aim of this new subcutaneous wireless charger is to provide “preferred tissue interfacing properties” while providing high energy storage performance. This makes it a flexible and soft design, allowing it to easily adapt to the shape of tissues and organs during any procedure.

This type of system is of great importance since non-biodegradable options often require additional surgeries to replace or recharge their batteries. If this entire system could be powerful enough to power medical devices while also making it biodegradable, the need for additional surgeries to remove the device would be eliminated.

The subcutaneous wireless charger consists of a magnesium coil that passes through a small circuit and enters the energy storage module. This module consists of zinc-ion hybrid supercapacitors, which allow it to store electrical energy directly rather than relying on chemical energy storage like standard batteries.

This breakthrough could revolutionize the way biomedical devices work. However, it is currently still in early development, and while the prototype is promising, more work needs to be done if the researchers want to properly scale it to meet the needs of the worldwide medical industry.

Moreover, in the future, such systems may even change the way we charge the wireless devices we use every day, such as smartphones, tablets and laptops.