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AbstractSodium trisilicate waterglass is an earth-abundant inorganic adhesive which binds to diverse materials and exhibits extreme chemical and temperature stability. Here we demonstrate the use of this material as an electrode binder in a lay-up based manufacturing system to produce structural batteries. While conventional binders for structural batteries exhibit a trade-off between mechanical and electrochemical performance, the waterglass binder is rigid, adhesive, and facilitates ion transport. The bulk binder maintains a Young’s modulus of >50 GPa in the presence of electrolyte solvent while waterglass-based electrodes have high rate capability and stable discharge capacity over hundreds of electrochemical cycles. The temperature stability of the binder enables heat treatment of the full cell stack following lay-up shaping in order to produce a rigid, load-bearing part. The resulting structural batteries exhibit impressive multifunctional performance with a package free cell stack-level energy density of 93.9 Wh/kg greatly surpassing previously published structural battery materials, and a tensile modulus of 1.4 GPa.

Short-wave infrared (SWIR, 900–1700 nm) enables in vivo imaging with high spatiotemporal resolution and penetration depth due to the reduced tissue autofluorescence and decreased photon scattering at long wavelengths. Although small organic SWIR dye molecules have excellent biocompatibility, they have been rarely exploited as compared to their inorganic counterparts, mainly due to their low quantum yield. To increase their brightness, in this work, the SWIR dye molecules are placed in close proximity to gold nanorods (AuNRs) for surface plasmon-enhanced emission. The fluorescence enhancement is optimized by controlling the dye-to-AuNR number ratio and up to ≈45-fold enhancement factor is achieved. In addition, the results indicate that the highest dye-to-AuNR number ratio gives the highest emission intensity per weight and this is used for synthesizing SWIR imaging probes using layer-by-layer (LbL) technique with polymer coating protection. Then, the SWIR imaging probes are applied for in vivo imaging of ovarian cancer and the surface coating effect on intratumor distribution of the imaging probes is investigated in two orthotopic ovarian cancer models. Lastly, it is demonstrated that the plasmon-enhanced SWIR imaging probe has great potential for fluorescence imaging-guided surgery by showing its capability to detect sub-millimeter-sized tumors.

Aerogels are ultralight porous materials whose matrix structure can be formed by interlinking 880 nm long M13 phage particles. In theory, changing the phage properties would alter the aerogel matrix, but attempting this using the current production system leads to heterogeneous lengths. A phagemid system that yields a narrow length distribution that can be tuned in 0.3 nm increments from 50 to 2500 nm is designed and, independently, the persistence length varies from 14 to 68 nm by mutating the coat protein. A robotic workflow that automates each step from DNA construction to aerogel synthesis is used to build 1200 aerogels. This is applied to compare Ni–MnOx cathodes built using different matrixes, revealing a pareto-optimal relationship between performance metrics. This work demonstrates the application of genetic engineering to create “tuning knobs” to sweep through material parameter space; in this case, toward creating a physically strong and high-capacity battery.

With the emergence of global pandemics such as the Black Death (Plague), 1918 influenza, smallpox, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and currently the COVID-19 outbreak caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, there is an urgent, pressing medical need to devise methods of rapid testing and diagnostics to screen a large population of the planet. The important considerations for any such diagnostic test include: 1 high sensitivity (to maximize true positive rate of detection); 2 high specificity (to minimize false positives); 3 low cost of testing (to enable widespread adoption, even in resource-constrained settings); 4 rapid turnaround time from sample collection to test result; and 5 test assay without the need for specialized equipment. While existing testing methods for COVID-19 such as RT-PCR (real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction) offer high sensitivity and specificity, they are quite expensive – in terms of the reagents and equipment required, the laboratory expertise needed to run and interpret the test data, and the turnaround time. In this review, we summarize the recent advances made using carbon nanotubes for sensors; as a nanotechnology-based approach for diagnostic testing of viral pathogens; to improve the performance of the detection assays with respect to sensitivity, specificity and cost. Carbon nanomaterials are an attractive platform for designing biosensors due to their scalability, tunable functionality, photostability, and unique opto-electronic properties. Two possible approaches for pathogen detection using carbon nanomaterials are discussed here: 1 optical sensing, and 2 electrochemical sensing. We explore the chemical modifications performed to add functionality to the carbon nanotubes, and the physical, optical and/or electronic considerations used for testing devices or sensors fabricated using these carbon nanomaterials. Given this progress, it is reason to be cautiously optimistic that nanosensors based on carbon nanotubes, graphene tec

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) have generated substantial interest because of the geopolitical uncertainty of the availability of lithium, as well as the potential cost savings associated with replacing lithium with sodium. One of the key technological impediments to SIBs is the availability of a high-capacity anode material. Here, we show that biotemplated zinc sulfide nanofibers, prepared using the M13 bacteriophage template, have the potential to be used for this purpose. We investigated the effect of both annealing and carbon coating on the electrochemical performance of these materials. Biotemplated zinc sulfide nanofibers, when coated with a few-nanometer carbon layer, could deliver a reversible capacity of 603 mAh/g at 100 mA/g discharge rate, even when the zinc sulfide loading is as high as 70%. The initial Coulombic efficiency reached 71%, and the electrode could be cycled for at least 100 cycles., Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Award HR0011-15-C-0084), Army Research Office Institute of Collaborative Biotechnologies (Grant 017251-022)

Here, we demonstrate a chemical modification strategy to create biomaterials of the M13 bacteriophage with extraordinary thermal stability, and high compatibility with non-aqueous ionic liquids. The results provide a blueprint for developing soft materials with well-defined architectures that may find broad applicability in the next generation of flexible devices. ©2019 The Royal Society of Chemistry., MIT-Imperial College London MISTI Global Seed Fund, U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Living Foundries program (award no. HR0011-15-C-0084), EPSRC (EP/K038648/1), EPSRC (EP/R013764/1)

Fluorescence imaging is a powerful tool for studying biologically relevant macromolecules, but its applicability is often limited by the fluorescent probe, which must demonstrate both high site‐specificity and emission efficiency. In this regard, M13 virus, a versatile biological scaffold, has previously been used to both assemble fluorophores on its viral capsid with molecular precision and to also target a variety of cells. Although M13‐fluorophore systems are highly selective, these complexes typically suffer from poor molecular detection limits due to low absorption cross‐sections and moderate quantum yields. To overcome these challenges, a coassembly of the M13 virus, cyanine 3 dye, and silver nanoparticles is developed to create a fluorescent tag capable of binding with molecular precision with high emissivity. Enhanced emission of cyanine 3 of up to 24‐fold is achieved by varying nanoparticle size and particle‐fluorophore separation. In addition, it is found that the fluorescence enhancement increases with increasing dye surface density on the viral capsid. Finally, this highly fluorescent probe is applied for in vitro staining of E. coli . These results demonstrate an inexpensive framework for achieving tuned fluorescence enhancements. The methodology developed in this work is potentially amendable to fluorescent detection of a wide range of M13/cell combinations., Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Award HR0011-15-C-0084)

Our demand for electronic goods and fossil fuels has challenged our ecosystem with contaminating amounts of heavy metals, causing numerous water sources to become polluted. To counter heavy-metal waste, industry has relied on a family of physicochemical processes, with chemical precipitation being one of the most commonly used. However, the disadvantages of chemical precipitation are vast, including the generation of secondary waste, technical handling of chemicals and need for complex infrastructures. To circumvent these limitations, biological processes to naturally manage waste have been sought. Here, we show that yeast can act as a biological alternative to traditional chemical precipitation by controlling naturally occurring production of hydrogen sulfide (H2S). Sulfide production was harnessed by controlling the sulfate assimilation pathway, where strategic knockouts and culture conditions generated H2S from 0 to over 1,000 ppm (~30 mM). These sulfide-producing yeasts were able to remove mercury, lead and copper from real-world samples taken from the Athabasca oil sands. More so, yeast surface display of biomineralization peptides helped control for size distribution and crystallinity of precipitated metal sulfide nanoparticles. Altogether, this yeast-based platform not only removes heavy metals but also offers a platform for metal re-extraction through precipitation of metal sulfide nanoparticles. ©2020, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited., Amar G. Bose Research Grant, NSF Graduate Fellowship, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, NIH (core center grant P30-ES002109 )

One of the best strategies for achieving faster computers is to mitigate the millisecond-order time delays arising from the transfer and storage of information between silicon- A nd magnetic-based memories. Segregating-binary-alloy (SBA)-type phase-change materials (PCMs), such as gallium antimonide-based systems, can store information on 10 ns time scales by using a single memory structure; however, these materials are hindered by the high consumption of energies and undergo elemental segregation around 620 K. Nanowire-like PCMs can achieve low-energy consumption but are often synthesized by vapor-liquid-solid methods above 720 K, which would cause irreversible corruption of SBA-based PCMs. Here we control the morphology, composition, and functionality of SBA-type germanium-tin oxide systems using template-driven nucleation that leverages the electrostatic-binding specificity of the M13 bacteriophage surface. A wirelike PCM was achieved, with controllable and reliable phase-changing signatures, capable of tens of nanoseconds switching times. This approach addresses some of the critical material compositional and structural constraints that currently diminish the utility of PCMs in universal memory systems.