Filed under: Emerging Technologies, EV/Plug-in, Hybrid
Image of individual nanorod structure - Click above to watch video after the jump
A team of researchers at the University of Maryland's A. James Clark School of Engineering and College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, headed by Professor Reza Ghodssi, is studying the use of the Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV) as a component of the next generation of minute, yet extremely powerful batteries. TMV is a plant virus that attacks crops such as tobacco, tomatoes, and peppers, but studies have shown that it can be modified to bind to battery electrodes and assist in the chemical reactions that generate power.
TMV's nanostructure is said to be ideal for building battery electrodes. Its biological properties produce a structure that, after extensive testing, has been shown to increase the power and storage capacity of batteries. TMV broadens the electrode's surface area, allowing for faster charge and discharge rates. At this point in time, TMV has only been thoroughly tested in incredibly small microbatteries, but its use could eventually be extended to include full-scale battery types.
Professor Reza Ghodssi describes the possible applications for the TMV-based battery technology:
Hop the jump to watch video related to the A. James Clark TMV research project.The resulting batteries are a leap forward in many ways and will be ideal for use not only in small electronic devices but in novel applications that have been limited so far by the size of the required battery.
The technology that we have developed can be used to produce energy storage devices for integrated microsystems such as wireless sensors networks. These systems have to be really small in size-millimeter or sub-millimeter-so that they can be deployed in large numbers in remote environments for applications like homeland security, agriculture, environmental monitoring and more; to power these devices, equally small batteries are required, without compromising in performance.
[Source: A. James Clark School of Engineering]
Continue reading University researches battery applications for Tobacco Mosaic Virus [w/video]
University researches battery applications for Tobacco Mosaic Virus [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Thu, 23 Dec 2010 07:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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