Pyroelectric peptide microtubes turn heat to electric currents
Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - 04:33
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 show 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.