Researchers Use Viruses to Build Better Battery [VIDEO]

In an attempt to design a better battery, a team of researchers have found that adding benign genetically modified viruses to a lithium-air battery's electrodes can make the battery more durable and improve the number of charge/discharge cycles it can withstand.

The scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology published the details of their work in the journal Nature Communications.

At the center of their research were nanowires, tiny wires about the width of a single red blood cell that can serve as one of the battery's electrodes. When the viruses were introduced to the nanowires, which were made of manganese oxide, they reacted with the material, combining with the wire and expanding the wire's overall surface area, which is the part of the battery where electrochemical activity takes place during charging or discharging.

Angela Belcher, a professor of energy at MIT, said the process of biosynthesis happening with the virus and the nanowires is similar to the way abalone grows in its shell, capturing molecules out of water and using them to build structural shapes.

The benefit of increasing the surface area of the nanowires by this method is a "big advantage" to the charging cycle of lithium-air batteries, which are used in electric cars, Belcher said. The increased surface area the virus gives to the nanowire also allows for increased stability. The process itself has its own advantages, Belcher added, because it can be done at room temperature at less of a cost than other methods of increasing the functionality of nanowires in lithium-air batteries.

While Belcher and her colleagues are hailing their work as progress, they say much more must be done before the process can become commercially viable.

"This work only looked at the production of one component, the cathode; other essential parts, including the electrolyte -- the ion conductor that lithium ions traverse from one of the battery's electrodes to the other - require further research to find reliable, durable materials," MIT wrote in a news release. "Also, while this material was successfully tested through 50 cycles of charging and discharging, for practical use a battery must be capable of withstanding thousands of these cycles."

The video below explains the process more in depth.