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

Viral Battery In developing materials for batteries, there is a trade-off between charge capacity, conductivity, and chemical stability. Nanostructured materials improve the conductivity for some resistive materials, but fabricating stable materials at nanometer-length scales is difficult. Harnessing their knowledge of viruses as toolkits for materials fabrication, Lee et al. (p. 1051; published online 2 April) modified two genes in the filamentous bacteriophage M13 to produce a virus with an affinity for nucleating amorphous iron phosphate along its length and for attaching carbon nanotubes at one of the ends. In nanostructured form, the amorphous iron phosphate produced a useful cathode material, while the carbon nanotubes formed a percolating network that significantly enhanced conductivity.