Biological Nano-Wire

Nanotechnology is in its full bloom since a few years and the designs and practical applications get increasingly clever. Scientists working for the US Department of Energy now discovered a way to transmit electrical current via bacteria.


image appears courtesy of New Scientist

Bacteria can be fooled into producing conductive nano-fibres that may then be used as tiny electronic connectors.
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Tiny hair-like surface appendages, known as "pili", are used by bacteria to connect to host tissue and reproduce with other bacteria of the same species. Pili are made of protein and are usually non-conductive.

But the patented idea is to grow a bug strain called Geobacter sulfurreducens using a nutrient that contains particles of insoluble ferric oxide. The resulting bacteria should sprout pili that are highly conductive. So growing the bacteria in lines over an absorptive substrate would create a circuit of biological nano-wires.

Alternatively, the bacteria could be deposited on top of a chip surface and the pili detached and then manoeuvred into position between nano-components. The inventors also hope to genetically modify bacteria to create pili with specific electrical characteristics.

Full patent here.