Michael MacDonald
The capacity for natural organisms to accomplish what man deems nearly impossible by his own means has proven to be the most powerful tool in bioengineering today. A recent breakthrough has utilized the natural complexity and intricacy of an M13 bacteriophage in order to yield a very unnatural object - a rechargeable battery.
A research team lead by professors Angela Belcher, Paula Hammond and Yet-Ming Chiang of the Michigan Institute Technology, with funding from the Army Research Office Institute of Collaborative Biotechnologies, the Institute of Soldier Nanotechnologies and the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, were behind the ground-breaking development, reported in Sciencexpress and in the April 6 issue of ‘Science’.
In their research the team found that by genetically modifying the genome of the virus (a process used commonly to create viral vectors for the genetic alteration of other microorganisms) that the virus could be made to take up certain materials in very small amounts and arrange them along its coat. They did this by adding a tetra-glutamate to the several significant coat proteins which effectively attracts metallic ions to the outside of the virus. The viruses were then quenched in a series of solutions forming a chemical process which resulted in very small crystalline structures of cobalt oxide (Co3O4) assembling along the entire length of the virus.
A peptide which attracts gold particles was also added to a small degree to the coating proteins of the virus coat which formed a composite nanocrystal coating lattice with a 30% greater capacitance (a term defining the amount of electrical energy able to be stored in a substance) than the non-viral battery structures.
However, yet another brilliant exploitation of the virus was developed by the research team. This was that, as viruses have a large degree of specificity when it comes to binding with foreign materials (such as the membrane of a host cell), the virus particles could be made to assemble themselves specifically along a conducting carbon nanowire to form a highly efficient, flexible and lightweight conductive mesh. Or, as Prof. Hammond said…
"By harnessing the electrostatic nature of the assembly process with the functional properties of the virus, we can create highly ordered composite thin films combining the function of the virus and polymer systems,”
All in all a statement by the team does well to summarize the immense potential for application found in this technology,
"The nanoscale materials we've made supply two to three times the electrical energy for their mass or volume, compared to previous materials,"
Thus it goes without saying, this is indeed a very promising and very interesting development in the world of bioengineering and biomaterials, with future uses including very small, yet high-yielding batteries, flexibly formable batteries and even a more viable solution for the battery system in hybrid cars.
Please See;
http://18.82.1.16/PUBLICATIONS/1171541v1.pdf
- (Yun Jung Lee, Hyunjung Yi, Woo-Jae Kim, Kisuk Kang, Dong Soo Yun, Michael S. Strano, Gerbrand Ceder, Angela M. Belcher, ‘Fabricating Genetically Engineered High-Power Lithium Ion Batteries Using Multiple Virus Genes’, Sciencexpress, http://18.82.1.16/PUBLICATIONS/1171541v1.pdf, April, 2009, all pages)
and related links...
- Anne Trafton, MIT - News Office, 2 Apr. 09, Friday 24 Apr. 09, http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/virus-battery-0402.html
- Liz Kalaugher, nanotechweb.org and IOP publishing ,6 Apr. 06 ,Friday 24 Apr. 09, http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/24581
- Author undisclosed, MIT - News Office, 7 Apr. 2006, Friday 24 Apr. 09, http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2006/virus-battery.html
and related documents...
Author unmentioned, MIT TechTalk Volume 50 Number 23, MIT, Wednesday 12 Apr. 06, Friday 24 Apr. 09, http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2006/techtalk50-23.pdf 2.
Anne trafton, MIT TechTalk Volume 53 Number 21, MIT, Wednesday 8 Apr. 09, Friday 24 Apr. 09, http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/techtalk53-21.pdf
