"...The batteries have the same energy capacity and power performance as rechargeable batteries used to power plug-in hybrid cars...."
"...Researchers constructed a lithium-ion battery, similar to those used in millions of devices, but one which uses genetically engineered viruses to create the negatively charged anode and positively charged cathode.
"...Professor Angela Belcher, who led the research team, said: 'Our material is powerful enough to be able to be used in a car battery.'
"The team from MIT in the US is now working on higher power batteries.
"Scientists at MIT used the viruses to build both the positively and negatively charged ends of a battery, the cathode and anode, the journal Science reports.
"The virus is a so-called common bacteriophage which infects bacteria and is harmless to humans.
"Three years ago the MIT scientists manipulated genes inside a virus that coaxed the particles to grow and self-assemble to form a nanowire anode one-tenth the width of a human hair.
"The microbes are encouraged to collect exotic materials - cobalt oxide and gold - and because the particles are negatively charged, they can be formed into a dense, virus-loaded film which acts as an anode and "grows" on a polymer separator.
"Researchers, including MIT Professor Gerbrand Ceder and Associate Professor Michael Strano, have now developed a highly powerful cathode....." - more
