A research team led by Professor Zhao Yang from the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the Beijing Institute of Technology has made significant progress in developing implantable micro-supercapacitors designed to aid small intestine wound healing.

Their findings were published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications under the title Mechanically-activated electrochemical implantable micro-supercapacitors boosting wound healing in the small intestine (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-73010-6).

As the understanding of bioelectrical regulation mechanisms in regeneration deepens, implantable micro-power sources that can mimic endogenous electrical signals are considered crucial for the next generation of smart bioelectronic devices.

However, in complex internal environments like the narrow and winding intestines, these devices must meet stringent requirements for high energy density, small size, flexibility, biocompatibility, and long-term stability. Traditional micro-supercapacitors have long faced a trade-off between the densification of electrode active materials and the effectively exposed active surface area.

To address these challenges, the research team proposed a mechanically activated electrochemical strategy. By utilizing the isotropic shrinkage of a polyvinyl alcohol network during water evaporation, internal stress is applied to carbon nanotubes, inducing lattice compression and bending deformation. This process significantly enhances the electrochemically active surface area. Compared to the initial state before shrinkage, the electrochemically active area of the electrode increased nearly 4,000 times. The device, with a minimal feature size of just 2.5 mm, can continuously discharge in simulated intestinal fluid for over 96 hours and improve intestinal wound healing rates by 36 percent to 50 percent in a Bama miniature pig model.

The development of this implantable device offers a new paradigm for designing small biomedical and implantable micro-power sources, providing an ideal energy solution for future highly integrated, long-term implantable medical electronic devices.