Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Published Online April 2, 2009
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1171541

Reports

Submitted on January 29, 2009
Accepted on March 25, 2009

Fabricating Genetically Engineered High-Power Lithium Ion Batteries Using Multiple Virus Genes

Yun Jung Lee 1{dagger}, Hyunjung Yi 1{dagger}, Woo-Jae Kim 2, Kisuk Kang 3, Dong Soo Yun 1, Michael S. Strano 2, Gerbrand Ceder 1, Angela M. Belcher 4*

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.; KAIST Institute for Eco-Energy, 335, Gwahangno, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, Korea, 305-701.
4 Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.; Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Angela M. Belcher , E-mail: belcher{at}mit.edu

{dagger}These authors contributed equally to this work.

Development of materials that deliver more energy at high charge/discharge rates is important for high power applications, including portable electronic devices and hybrid electric vehicles. Reducing materials dimensions for lithium ion batteries can boost Li+ ion and electron transfer in nanostructured electrodes. We developed a strategy for attaching electrochemically active materials to conducting carbon nanotubes networks through biological molecular recognition. By manipulating two genes of the M13 virus, viruses were equipped with peptide groups with 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. For the virus clone that demonstrated 10 times greater affinity towards SWNTs, power performance of a-FePO4 was comparable to that of crystalline lithium iron phosphate (c-LiFePO4). The electrodes showed excellent capacity retention upon cycling at 1C for at least 50 cycles. This environmentally benign low temperature biological scaffold could facilitate fabrication of electrodes from materials that have been excluded because of their extremely low electronic conductivity.




To Advertise     Find Products

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