Portable electronic gadgets are getting more and more high tech, but batteries that are used to run them are not fulfilling the demand. ScienCentral News brings us a story of group of scientists from Massachusetts Institute of Technology working on a new type of batteries.
Copying how red abalone build their shells, Angela Belcher and her team are developing a way to actually “grow” rechargeable batteries with the help of viruses–tiny microbes that multiply by infecting living cells. Their technique would take a matter of weeks, rather than the 15 years the red abalone needs to assemble a full-sized shell.
“We’re forcing the viruses to interact with materials that they would never interact with, normally. So now the viruses are a template to actually grow that material… it incorporates these new materials into its coat surface,” Belcher explains.
The team uses a type of virus that infect bacteria, called bacteriophages. When mixed together with a metal or other materials, millions of them can align and stack themselves into orderly layers, creating a new material.
“My dream is to have a material that’s genetically controllable and genetically tunable. I’d like to have a DNA sequence that codes for the production of any kind of material you want,” she says. “You want a solar cell, here’s the DNA sequence for it. You want a battery, here’s the DNA sequence for it.” Her lab has already produced the first virus-assembled nanoelectrode and virus-assembled battery, created in collaboration with professors Paula Hammond and Yet-Ming Chiang. The battery reached the theoretical capacity for energy density with the material they created and, by putting it on a flexible surface, Belcher weaves these into soldiers’ uniforms to try to lighten their loads. Now, her lab seeks to develop a virus-based transistor.
Find out more and watch an interesting video clip at ScienCentral…
Read more about Dr. Angela Belcher at MIT web pages…
Your information will never be shared with any third party.