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Originally published in Science Express on 2 April 2009
Science 22 May 2009:
Vol. 324. no. 5930, pp. 1051 - 1055
DOI: 10.1126/science.1171541
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Reports

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,{dagger}

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-FePO4) fused to the viral major coat protein. The virus clone with the greatest affinity toward SWNTs enabled power performance of a-FePO4 comparable to that of crystalline lithium iron phosphate (c-LiFePO4) 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.

1 Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
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.

{dagger} To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: belcher{at}mit.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)