<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><br></div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Geneva"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; "><div class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Geneva">FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE</font></div><div class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">Contact: Teresa Herbert, MIT News Office</font></div><div class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Geneva"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; ">T. 617-258-5403, E. <a href="mailto:therber@mit.edu" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">therber@mit.edu</a> </span></font></div><div class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Geneva"><br></font></div><div class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Geneva">Photo available</font></div><div class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Geneva"><br></font></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Geneva; ">============================================ <o:p></o:p></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Geneva; ">MIT engineers work toward cell-sized batteries</span></div></span></font></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Geneva; ">--Microbatteries could power tomorrow’s miniature devices<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Geneva; ">============================================ <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Geneva; "> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Geneva; ">CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Forget 9-volts, AAs, AAAs or D batteries: The energy for tomorrow’s miniature electronic devices could come from tiny microbatteries about half the size of a human cell and built with viruses.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Geneva; "> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Geneva; ">MIT engineers have developed a way to at once create and install such microbatteries — which could one day power a range of miniature devices, from labs-on-a-chip to implantable medical sensors — by stamping them onto a variety of surfaces.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Geneva; "> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Geneva; ">In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) the week of Aug. 18, the team describes assembling and successfully testing two of the three key components of a battery. A complete battery is on its way.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Geneva; "> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Geneva; ">“To our knowledge, this is the first instance in which microcontact printing has been used to fabricate and position microbattery electrodes and the first use of virus-based assembly in such a process,” wrote MIT professors Paula T. Hammond, Angela M. Belcher, Yet-Ming Chiang and colleagues.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Geneva; "> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Geneva; ">Further, the technique itself “does not involve any expensive equipment, and is done at room temperature,” said Belcher, the Germeshausen Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Biological Engineering.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Geneva; "> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Geneva; ">Hammond is the Bayer Professor of Chemical Engineering and associate head of the Department of Chemical Engineering. Chiang is a professor of ceramics in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Belcher, Chiang and Hammond are also affiliated with the MIT Energy Initiative, which aims to help transform the global energy system to meet the needs of the future. Belcher and Hammond are also faculty members in the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Geneva; "> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Geneva; ">Batteries consist of two opposite electrodes — an anode and cathode — separated by an electrolyte. In the current work, the MIT team created both the anode and the electrolyte.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Geneva; "> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Geneva; ">First, on a clear, rubbery material the team used a common technique called soft lithography to create a pattern of tiny posts either four or eight millionths of a meter in diameter. On top of these posts, they then deposited several layers of two polymers that together act as the solid electrolyte and battery separator.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Geneva; "> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Geneva; ">Next came viruses that preferentially self-assemble atop the polymer layers on the posts, ultimately forming the anode. In 2006, Hammond, Belcher, Chiang and colleagues reported in Science how to do this. Specifically, they altered the virus’s genes so it makes protein coats that collect molecules of cobalt oxide to form ultrathin wires — together, the anode.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Geneva; "> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Geneva; ">The final result: a stamp of tiny posts, each covered with layers of electrolyte and the cobalt oxide anode. “Then we turn the stamp over and transfer the electrolyte and anode to a platinum structure” that, together with lithium foil, is used for testing, Hammond said.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Geneva; "> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Geneva; ">The team concludes in their PNAS paper: “the resulting electrode arrays exhibit full electrochemical functionality.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Geneva; "> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Geneva; ">What’s next? In addition to developing the third part of a full battery — the cathode — via the viral assembly technique, the team is also exploring a stamp for use on curved surfaces, Belcher said. “We’re also interested in integrating [the batteries] with biological organisms.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Geneva; "> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Geneva; ">Additional coauthors of the PNAS paper are first author Ki Tae Nam, Ryan Wartena, Pil J. Yoo (now at Sungkyunkwan University, Korea), Forrest W. Liau, and Yun Jung Lee.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Geneva; "> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Geneva; ">This work was funded by the Army Research Office Institute of Collaborative Biotechnologies, the Army Research Office Institute of Soldier Nanotechnologies, and the David and Lucille Packard Foundation.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Geneva"><br></font></div><div class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Geneva"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; "><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Geneva; ">By Elizabeth Thomson, MIT News Office<o:p></o:p></span></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Geneva"><br></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Geneva"># # #</font></div></span></font></div></div><div><br></div><br><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">Teresa Herbert<br>Media Specialist<br>Massachusetts Institute of Technology<br>News Office, Room 11-400<br>Cambridge, MA 02139-4307<br><br>Phone: 617-258-5403<br>Fax: 617-258-8762<br><br><a href="mailto:therbert@mit.edu">therbert@mit.edu</a></span></font></div><div><br></div></div></span></div></div></div><div apple-content-edited="true"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"> </div><br></body></html>