The Future of Batteries?

There is a virus called the Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV). It destroys crops including tobacco, tomatoes and peppers. It is cylindrical, very small, and it can bind to nickel and cobalt. It is self-replicating and self-assembling. Some scientists figured out that it is a great size and shape to use in battery electrodes. The virus cells bind to the electrodes and this increases the surface area of the electrode. This greater surface area means that a battery can hold more electrical energy - up to ten times more.

So, imagine all of your gadgets that use lithium batteries lasting ten times as long. A laptop could last a couple of days on a charge.

Or, imagine that everything worked the same but the battery was a tenth the size. A cell phone could be tiny.

The University of Maryland researchers are trying to find a way to scale this to a commercial level. It could result in a new market for tobacco growers around the world - reducing their need to sell cigarettes and contributing to technology at the same time.