The news feeds on this site are independently provided by Adfero Limited © and do not represent the views or opinions of the World Gold Council.

Wednesday, 23rd September 2009 (5175 views)

Batteries that build themselves from engineered "viruses" coated with gold could be available for specialist applications within five to ten years, a leading researcher has said.

Angela Belcher, a professor of materials science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), told CNN that the power sources could be the "next-next generation of batteries".

Professor Belcher and her team at MIT synthesise a virus that is harmless to humans known as M13 bacteriophage to use as the building blocks of the batteries.

A traditional battery passes ions between a negative anode and a positive cathode. The scientists demonstrated that engineered viruses can build an anode by coating themselves in gold and cobalt oxide to effectively create nanoscale wires.

Cathodes can be created by binding iron phosphate-coated viruses to carbon nanotubes.

The self-assembling battery produces no toxic or manufacturing waste and once it is complete, the virus cannot continue copying itself, Professor Belcher noted.

Elsewhere, gold has been used to develop nanowires that could be integrated into clothing to generate electrical power from body movement.

Dr Zhong Lin Wang of Georgia Institute of Technology's School of Materials Science and Engineering said the nanowires could eventually be used to provide renewable power to soldiers operating in the field or hikers in remote locations.

 

« Back to Gold News stories