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wiredInUSA - September 2016
MAKING
THENEWS
Finest of fine wires?
Microbiologists at the University of
Massachusetts Amherst are making
electrical wires that are thousands
of times thinner than a human hair.
Microbial nanowires are produced
by a genetically modified soil
bacteria, Geobacter sulfurreducens.
Researchers
manipulated
the
bacteria to spin out very fine, highly
conductive wires composed of
amino acids.
Two naturally occurring amino acids
in the Geobacter bacteria were
replaced with tryptophan, and not
only was the result 2,000 times more
conductive, the “wire” became
smaller and more durable, with a
diameter of 1.5 nanometers (about
60,000 times thinner than a human
hair).
Dr Derek R Lovley, the team’s lead
researcher, said that the wires can
be sustainably produced from
inexpensive materials, such as
acetic acid.
“We are very excited about the
possibilities for synthetic biological
wires,” he wrote in an email
statement. “...It is expected that
the biowire will be incorporated into
various polymer materials to make
new types of biocompatible flexible
electronics and even new types of
devices for harvesting solar energy.”
The experiment was funded by the
office of naval research, but there
are many potential uses for the
nanotechnology other than military
applications, particularly in the
health and medical sector.
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