Genetic Control of Aerogel and Nanofoam Properties, Applied to Ni–MnO x Cathode Design
Name
10.1002-adfm.202010867.pdf
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2.26 MB
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Checksum (MD5)
9af547b16a9bd70242ba8339ab2f51f7
Author(s)
Cha, Tae‐Gon
Tsedev, Uyanga
Ransil, Alan
Embree, Amanda
Gordon, D. Benjamin
Belcher, Angela M.
Voigt, Christopher A.
Date Issued
June 23, 2021
Journal
Advanced Functional Materials
Publisher
Wiley
Citation
Cha, T.-G., Tsedev, U., Ransil, A., Embree, A., Gordon, D. B., Belcher, A. M., Voigt, C. A., Genetic Control of Aerogel and Nanofoam Properties, Applied to Ni–MnOx Cathode Design. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2021, 31, 2010867
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
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.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202010867
