Web Release Date: December 23,
Self-Assembly of Virus-Structured High Surface Area Nanomaterials and Their Application as Battery Electrodes
and
School of Chemical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, Center for Biosystems Research, University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, and Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Fischell Department of Bioengineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
Received June 4, 2007
In Final Form: October 12, 2007
Abstract:
High area nickel and cobalt surfaces were assembled using modified Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) templates. Rod-shaped TMV templates (300 × 18 nm) engineered to encode unique cysteine residues were self-assembled onto gold patterned surfaces in a vertically oriented fashion, producing a >10-fold increase in surface area. Electroless deposition of ionic metals onto surface-assembled virus templates produced uniform metal coatings up to 40 nm in thickness. Within a nickel-zinc battery system, the incorporation of virus-assembled electrode surfaces more than doubled the total electrode capacity. When combined, these findings demonstrate that surface-assembled virus templates provide a robust platform for the fabrication of oriented high surface area materials.
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