Fabricating Genetically Engineered High-Power Lithium-Ion Batteries Using Multiple Virus Genes
Yun Jung Lee,1,*
Hyunjung Yi,1,*
Woo-Jae Kim,2
Kisuk Kang,3,4
Dong Soo Yun,1
Michael S. Strano,2
Gerbrand Ceder,1
Angela M. Belcher1,5,
Development of materials that deliver more energy at high rates
is important for high-power applications, including portable
electronic devices and hybrid electric vehicles. For lithium-ion
(Li
+) batteries, reducing material dimensions can boost Li
+ ion and electron transfer in nanostructured electrodes. By manipulating
two genes, we equipped viruses with peptide groups having affinity
for single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) on one end and peptides
capable of nucleating amorphous iron phosphate(a-FePO
4) fused
to the viral major coat protein. The virus clone with the greatest
affinity toward SWNTs enabled power performance of a-FePO
4 comparable
to that of crystalline lithium iron phosphate (c-LiFePO
4) and
showed excellent capacity retention upon cycling at 1C. This
environmentally benign low-temperature biological scaffold could
facilitate fabrication of electrodes from materials previously
excluded because of extremely low electronic conductivity.
2 Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
3 Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 335, Gwahangno, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, Korea, 305-701.
4 KAIST Institute for Eco-Energy, 335, Gwahangno, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, Korea, 305-701.
5 Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
* These authors contributed equally to this work.
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: belcher{at}mit.edu
