Virus-Based Piezoelectric Materials for Energy Generation

The future growing energy demands ask for new ways to generate, store, and utilize energy. Piezoelectric devices can be utilized in the future as clean energy generators by scavenging the ubiquitous, mechanical energy and converting it to electrical energy.  However, the synthesis of piezoelectric devices often requires the utilization of harmful materials, harsh conditions, and/or complex procedures. Here, we demonstrate electrical energy production utilizing a novel piezoelectric material based on M13 bacteriophage (phage). We characterized the structure-dependent piezoelectric properties of the self-assembled phage thin films. We also showed that their piezoelectric properties can be tuned by modulating their dipole strength through genetic engineering of their major coat proteins. The phage films showed piezoelectric strengths of ~7.8 pm/V and the devices could produce 6 nA of current and 400 mV of potential, enough to operate liquid crystal displays. The self-replication and self-assembly of the phage allows for simple and environmentally friendly production of piezoelectric materials that may be used for energy harvesting and transduction in future miniature scale devices.