Battery electrodes self-assembled by viruses
| Genetically modified viruses that assemble into electrodes could one day revolutionise battery manufacturing. Researchers in the US have created viruses that automatically coat themselves in metals and line up head to tail to form an efficient battery anode – the negatively charged component that channels electrons to generate current. These nanowires could be used to make revolutionary new forms of lithium-ion batteries, the researchers say. "Now it's simply a matter of designing the other components, and we'll be able to form batteries by simply pouring all the ingredients together and letting them self-assemble," says Angela Belcher, a biological engineer at MIT who led the research. "Plus we can make them at room temperature in very safe conditions, instead of the high temperatures and dangers usually associated with battery production." Belcher's team genetically modified tube-shaped viruses that normally infect bacteria to create the electrodes. They introduced snippets of single-stranded DNA that caused the viruses to manufacture specific molecules on their outer coating that attach to cobalt ions and gold particles. This combination turns the virus into an efficient anode as they provide an ideal conduit for electrons. This was seized 4 u at New Scientist |
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