Virus-Based Batteries: Tiny, Flexible, Cheap?

Aug. 25, 2008 -- A virus-ridden computer without a noticeable battery might not sell on Ebay, but that's exactly what researchers at MIT could build, thanks to a new advance in battery technology.

By pouring a mixture of the harmless, genetically engineered M13 virus and the metal cobalt over stamped silicon film, Angela Belcher and her colleagues created a flexible, microscopic battery that could be cheaply mass produced.

In theory, it could turn virtually any surface -- from large computers to tiny implanted detectors for cancer or heart disease -- into an energy-storing device.

"The idea of using stamping technique to produce a battery is pretty different," said Belcher. "We can make the batteries really small, which lets us put a power source on all sorts of tiny sensors."

Belcher and her colleagues created the first virus-powered battery in 2006. Since then they have been refining their viral battery while working to create other novel energy-storing devices that could be woven into fabrics or poured into containers.

Their most recent advance, detailed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, involves stamping a base material, in this case silicon, so that the negatively charged M13 virus and positively charged cobalt can self-assemble based on their relative charges and the pattern of the stamp.

Stamping the base materials, which can theoretically be nearly any surface, means that the batteries can be produced more cheaply and efficiently. With silicon as the base material, flexible and curved batteries can be created as well.