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Friday, May 1, 2009
From the Bench
Angela Belcher boosts battery performance with viruses
By Brendan Lynch
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The next time you replace the batteries in your remote control, think about the possibility of rubber-stamping on a new one — or fixing a plastic wrap-like battery sticker, or pouring in some liquid battery. Those form factors for replaceable power are years away, at least, but they may have gotten closer after an MIT project disclosed its results last month.
Researchers at MIT recently showed they could genetically engineer both the positively and negatively charged parts of a lithium ion battery using a virus, according to MIT materials scientist and 2005 Mass High Tech Women to Watch honoree Angela Belcher, who led the research. The researchers had already demonstrated in 2006 that they could engineer biological material to be used as the positive anode of a battery. This latest research paper covers both sides, genetically engineering both the anode and the negative cathode, which is a trickier proposition, Belcher said.
“(The virus) is completely nontoxic to humans and not even that toxic to bacteria,” she said.
The battery would be cheaper and safer to produce, and could made at room temperature or cooler with environmentally safe materials. The proof-of-concept virus battery has 2.5 times the energy storage capacity of commercial batteries, Belcher said. In the lab at MIT, researchers have used the battery to power devices such as light emitting diodes and laser pointers.
About a gram of the bioengineered material could be used to power a laptop for about the same amount of time as currently available batteries, Belcher said. A kilogram could be used to power a hybrid car, Belcher said.
Last week, MIT president Susan Hockfield took a prototype of the battery to the White House where she was discussing federal clean tech funding with President Barack Obama.
Belcher, 40, said the prototype of the technology is meant to serve as a proof of concept — the battery won’t be ready to commercialize for about three to five years. When it is ready, Belcher said she foresees the technology being used to put batteries into forms as small as credit cards. Since the battery’s components are grown in an aqueous solution, they’re not toxic. That would allow the batteries to be used in medical applications or environmental sensors, where current batteries would poison or pollute. “It’s basically made in water,” she said.
Editors Note: From the Bench is a new series of profiles of cutting edge research, and the researchers who are behind the latest innovations still in the labs.
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