Researchers at the University of Limerick have discovered a way of generating low-cost electricity from a sustainable biomaterial.

The method could in the future lead to new ways of powering tiny devices like mobile phone speakers and motion detectors in cars and video games.

The scientists found that tapping or squeezing glycine, a biomolecule which is the simplest amino acid, can produce sufficient amounts of electricity to run certain electrical devices.

Glycine is abundant and occurs naturally in agricultural and forestry residues, making it possible to produce at a tiny fraction of the cost of similar materials that generate electricity under pressure, known as piezoelectrics.

Glycine is also sustainable as it is natural and does not contain the same toxic elements like lead or lithium that other piezoelectrics do.

"It is really exciting that such a tiny molecule can generate so much electricity," said lead author and post-graduate researcher at the Department of Physics and the Bernal Institute, in UL, Sarah Guerin.

"We used computer models to predict the electrical response of a wide range of crystals and the glycine number was off the charts. We then grew long, narrow crystals of glycine in alcohol," she added, "and we produced electricity just by tapping them."

The research was published in the journal Nature Materials.

The team is now patenting a method of translating the findings to other applications including biodegradable power generation, devices detecting diseases inside of the body and physiologically controlled drug pumps.