Nanotech Breakthrough: Harnessing Viruses to Make Batteries
7th Apr 2006, 12:43 GMT
Virus Originally uploaded by Shadab. MIT researchers, including nanotech notable Angela Belcher, have figured out a way to coax viruses into making tiny batteries at the nano scale. Belcher is a pioneer in self-assembly techniques, which is how these batteries were made. From the release: The MIT team altered the virus's genes so they make protein coats that collect molecules of cobalt oxide, plus gold. The viruses then align themselves on the polymer surface to form ultrathin wires. Each virus, and thus the wire, is only 6 nanometers (6 billionths of a meter) in diameter, and 880 nanometers in length. The work is important, too, because energy density is a vital quality in batteries. A lack of energy density - meaning the amount of charge a battery of a given size can usefully carry - is what has hampered development of electric cars, since existing batteries are generally too heavy and too weak to compete with gasoline as an energy source. In the lab, the virus battery created two to three times the electricity per mass or volume that today's batteries produce. That's nothing to sneeze about.
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