Scientists at Berkeley Laboratories, in the United States, have achievedproduce electricity using small generators filled with harmless virusesfor the people. It is a promising first step towards the development of smalldevices that “harvest” electricity from everyday tasks, for example to charge the mobile phone with the energy that we produce when we step on the ground while we walk, according to the magazine todayNature Nanotechnology.
The researchers tested their idea by creating a flat generator, the size of a postage stamp, thatproduces the current necessary to operate a small liquid crystal display, and that is started simply by pressing with a finger. The device is coated withbacteriophage virus M13that convert the force applied with the finger into electricity, and it is the first to produce energy by taking advantage of the piezoelectric properties of a biological material, something that could be applied, for example, to obtain electricity every time we climb a staircase, close a door or a window, etc. Piezoelectricity is the accumulation of charge in a solid in response to mechanical stress.
In nature, the M13 virus only attacks bacteria, it is benign to people and, being a virus, it reproduces by millions in a matter of hours, providing a constant supply. In addition, it is easy to genetically modify.
The scientists optimized the generator when they stacked films made up of individual virus layers. Specifically,the maximum photoelectric effect was achieved with 20 layers of thickness. The film was placed between two gold-coated electrodes connected by cables to a liquid crystal display. Thus they produced a6 nanoampere current and 400 millivolt potential, that is, the equivalent of a quarter of an AAA battery.
