discovery of natural organic metals for fuel cells, transistors and supercapacitors
Post on 25-Feb-2016
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Discovery of Natural Organic Metals for Fuel Cells, Transistors and SupercapacitorsNikhil S. Malvankar1,2, Madeline Vargas2, Mark T. Tuominen1 and Derek R. Lovley2
Departments of 1Physics and 2Microbiology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Bacteria-produced proteins behave as if they are metals
Geobacter sproutsa web of microbial nanowires with metallic-like conductivity
Geobacter
Email: nikhil@physics.umass.edu Cell Phone: 413-313-3179
Geobacter uses electrodes as we use oxygen
Nanowires show structural features
similar to synthetic organic metalsX-ray diffractionrevealed highlyordered structure
Peak corresponds to pi stacking distance (3.5 Å)
Metal-like conductivity of microbial nanowires
Conductivity increased upon cooling
Temperature (K)
Con
duct
ivity
(µS
/cm
)
Nanowires
Biofilm
Nanowire networks carry electrons over
10,000 times the size of a single microbe
Equivalent to humans using oxygen 10 km away
Pi stacking givesmetallic conductivity
Microbial Nanowires: A new paradigm for biological electron transfer and bioelectronics
Protein-based nanomaterials are inexpensive and environmentally-sustainableThey can work under unusual aqueous and acidic environments
Microbial Fuel Cells with improved
current and power density
Applications of Microbial Nanowires
Transistors with 100-fold ON-OFF ratio
Con
duct
ivity
(µ
S/c
m)
Gate voltage (Volts)
ON
OFF
High-performance Supercapacitors
Email: nikhil@physics.umass.edu Cell Phone: 413-313-3179
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