Scientists develop 'virus-based' rechargeable battery technology

By Lee Joon-seung
SEOUL, April 3 (Yonhap) -- Scientists from South Korea and the United States on
Friday said they have developed a technology that can make next generation
rechargeable batteries using a harmless virus.

The MIT team led by Angela Belcher and made up of South Korean graduate students
and research engineers said they have been able to use the M13 virus to create a
prototype lithium-ion battery.
A lithium-ion battery works by getting ions to flow between the negatively
charged anode and positively charged cathode.
Belcher, a material science professor announced three years ago that she had
engineered a virus that helped build an anode, coated with a cobalt oxide and
gold. At the time no headway was made in using this method to make an efficient
cathode, which is harder to create.
This limit has been overcome with the latest technology that genetically modified
M13 viruses to receive amorphous iron phosphate and carbon nano tubes that
combined to make the cathode end of a battery. M13 is a nanometer long and 10
nanometers in diameter and is a virus that infects bacteria but is harmless to
humans.
This arrangement resulted in a cathode material that is extremely thin and can
help produce high power output.
The team said the breakthrough published in the latest Internet edition of
Science magazine is noteworthy because test showed it has the same energy
capacity and performance as high powered rechargeable batteries being considered
for electricity-driven cars.
They added that technology developed should allow batteries to be very
lightweight, flexible and made to fit various shapes. The latter quality is
important in the production of mobile electronics devices.
Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries have become commonplace as people use mobile
phones, notebook computers and other portable devices, but those on the market
suffer from relatively short operational life cycles without losing the original
capacitance, have limited power output and criticized for being unsafe if
damaged.
Kang Ki-suk, a professor of materials science and engineering at Korea Advanced
Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), who contributed to the work, said
the new battery technology is significant because it merged nano-technology,
biotech and energy-related mechanics.
Besides Belcher and Kang, lead authors of the paper are Lee Yun-jung and Yi
Hyun-jung, graduate students at MIT, and Yun Dong-soo, a research engineer in
materials sciences at the Boston-based school.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
(END)