Modified Viruses Boost Battery Performance

November 20, 2013 |

In Massachusetts, MIT researchers have found a way to boost lithium-air battery performance, with the help of modified viruses. The researchers found that adding genetically modified viruses to the production of nanowires — wires that are about the width of a red blood cell, and which can serve as one of a battery’s electrodes — could help solve some of these problems. The researchers produced an array of nanowires, each about 80 nanometers across, using a genetically modified virus called M13, which can capture molecules of metals from water and bind them into structural shapes. In this case, wires of manganese oxide — a “favorite material” for a lithium-air battery’s cathode.

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