Biotechnology Opens New Routes to High-Performance Materials for Improved Photovoltaics, Batteries, Uncooled IR Detectors, Ferroelectrics and Optical Applications; Conference paper with briefing charts

摘要

Biological systems fabricate multifunctional, high performance materials at low temperatures and near-neutral pH with a precision of three- dimensional nanostructural control that exceeds the capabilities of present human engineering. Using the tools of biotechnology and genetic engineering, we discovered the unanticipated mechanism of simultaneous catalysis and templating governing the nanofabrication of silica in a biological system. We then translated this mechanism to develop a new biologically inspired, low- temperature, low-cost route for the synthesis of silica and a wide range of silicones, organic polymers and nanostructured metal oxide, -hydroxide and - phosphate semiconductor thin films without the use of organic templates. This new synthesis method is generic, yielding more than 30 different inorganic thin films and nanostructured, bimetallic perovskite ferroelectrics. Because kinetic control is achieved at low temperature, thus circumventing the thermodynamic default, many of the inorganic materials made by this process exhibit morphologies and electronic properties not observable in the corresponding products made by conventional high temperature processes. The electronic properties of some of these novel materials suggest strong advantages for high- efficiency photovoltaics, lightweight high power-density 3-D batteries, improved battery safety, uncooled IR detectors and other energy and information storage applications. Because no organics are used, the resulting products exhibit very high purity, making the process fully integrable with MOCVD and other conventional manufacturing methods. Because synthesis occurs from solution, adaptation to roll-to-roll and other high throughput methods may be possible. Transitioning of these developments to Army applications is now beginning. Related efforts now in progress are focused on revolutionary, bio- inspired approaches to optical materials.