Posted on 05/27/2009 7:53:58 AM PDT by M203M4
Science 22 May 2009: Vol. 324. no. 5930, pp. 1051 - 1055 DOI: 10.1126/science.1171541
Fabricating Genetically Engineered High-Power Lithium-Ion Batteries Using Multiple Virus Genes
Yun Jung Lee,1,* Hyunjung Yi,1,* Woo-Jae Kim,2 Kisuk Kang,3,4 Dong Soo Yun,1 Michael S. Strano,2 Gerbrand Ceder,1 Angela M. Belcher1,5,$
ABSTRACT
Development of materials that deliver more energy at high rates is important for high-power applications, including portable electronic devices and hybrid electric vehicles [obligatory green reference]. For lithium-ion (Li+) batteries, reducing material dimensions can boost Li+ ion and electron transfer in nanostructured electrodes. By manipulating two genes, we equipped viruses with peptide groups having affinity for single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) on one end and peptides capable of nucleating amorphous iron phosphate(a-FePO4) fused to the viral major coat protein. The virus clone with the greatest affinity toward SWNTs enabled power performance of a-FePO4 comparable to that of crystalline lithium iron phosphate (c-LiFePO4) and showed excellent capacity retention upon cycling at 1C. This environmentally benign low-temperature biological scaffold could facilitate fabrication of electrodes from materials previously excluded because of extremely low electronic conductivity.
1 Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
2 Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
3 Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 335, Gwahangno, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, Korea, 305-701.
4 KAIST Institute for Eco-Energy, 335, Gwahangno, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, Korea, 305-701.
5 Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
* These authors contributed equally to this work.
$ To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: belcher@mit.edu
In developing materials for batteries, there is a trade-off between charge capacity, conductivity, and chemical stability. Nanostructured materials improve the conductivity for some resistive materials, but fabricating stable materials at nanometer-length scales is difficult. Harnessing their knowledge of viruses as toolkits for materials fabrication, Lee et al. (p. 1051; published online 2 April) modified two genes in the filamentous bacteriophage M13 to produce a virus with an affinity for nucleating amorphous iron phosphate along its length and for attaching carbon nanotubes at one of the ends. In nanostructured form, the amorphous iron phosphate produced a useful cathode material, while the carbon nanotubes formed a percolating network that significantly enhanced conductivity.
Great....now we have swine batteries.....
Is there anything the swine flu can’t do?????
Salt nanowire surprise
Royal Society of Chemistry | 26 May 2009 | Phillip Broadwith
Posted on 05/26/2009 9:54:43 PM PDT by neverdem
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2258844/posts
Technion discovery could help make bomb detection easier
JPOST.com | May 25, 2009 | Updated May 26, 2009 | By Judy Siegel-Itzkovich
Posted on 05/27/2009 11:33:15 AM PDT by Cindy
http://freerepublic.com/focus/news/2259221/posts
Does Government R&D Policy Mainly Benefit Scientists and Engineers?
( corruption alert )
NBER | August 14, 2000 | Austan Goolsbee
Posted on 05/26/2009 2:50:41 PM PDT by Halfmanhalfamazing
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2258605/posts
Someone will figure out how to produce street drugs using viruses and microbes, and then we’ll be shipping from north to south across the Mexican border. :’)
Oh yeah...that will be good....I like 180s...
;’)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.