MAQ Magazine n. 13 / July 2019
The science of nanotechnology is discovering new materials, such as the use of biomolecules for transport and production, of electric current. This is a very promising field of study, which would guarantee strong economic savings and greatly reduce the ecological impact of our electronic devices.
And the latest discovery in this field comes from Italy: a "molecular wire" composed of extremely stable self-assembling biomolecules, capable of transporting electricity and generating it if exposed to light.
These molecular wires were made with a molecule analogous to a natural peptide, called tricogine GA IV, synthesized by the fungus Trichoderma logibrachiatum.
Combining the molecule with two complementary nitrogenous bases (two of the so-called "DNA letters") the two researchers, Marta De Zotti of the Department of Chemical Sciences of the University of Padua and Emanuela Gatto, researcher at the University of Tor Vergata, gave the peptide the ability to self-organize in three dimensions, forming "molecular wires" on a gold electrode. And with the same method they linked, through the interaction between complementary nitrogenous bases, a porphyrin capable of transforming light into electric current.
Subjected to illumination, this system completely formed by biomolecules has proven to be able to generate current with an efficiency higher than that recorded in similar non-"bio" systems. Thanks to this biochemical engineering work, the first brick was built to build a biomolecular electronic circuit.
Source: galileo.it