Pyroelectric Peptide Microtubes Turn Heat to Electric Currents
Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - 10:32
in Physics & Chemistry
Many peptides and proteins have an innate ability to assemble into long, slender fibers called fibrils and other shapes. Now researchers have found a way to harness this property to create tubular structures of diphenylalanine that have the ability to convert thermal energy into electrical energy, also called a pyroelectric effect. Their results, published this week in Applied Physics Letters, report that these nanoscale polymers, which are biocompatible, could have a wide range of biological applications such as for drug delivery scaffolds or miniature implantable sensors.