Future Batteries Could be Made Out of Viruses
Viruses, nature’s microscopic zombies, can be selectively engineered to function as a scaffold for materials used in battery electrodes.
The global reliance on batteries has grown rapidly over the years.
Batteries store energy for later use in a wide variety of products, from flashlights to basic electronic devices to emerging technologies such as electric cars.
As such, there is an impending need for better, reliable higher energy density batteries.
Viruses, one of nature’s most predominant and unique microorganisms might hold the key to more efficient batteries of the future.
Using Viruses for Battery Manufacture.
In 2009, Angela Belcher, a professor of bioengineering at MIT was invited to the White House to demo a small battery for President Obama.
This wasn’t a normal battery. Belcher had used viruses to assemble the electrodes of a lithium-ion battery which was able to power an LED.
Her main inspiration came from studying organisms that can grow incredibly strong structures by using chemicals found in nature.
