Development of flagella bio-templated nanomaterials for electronics

Abstract

Bacterial flagella with their unique structural properties have proven to be promising bio-templates and can be exploited for the creation of nanomaterial with very high aspect ratio and surface area. Their chemically modifiable surfaces allow the flagella be modified to possess electrical/electronic properties. Their extraordinary physical properties along with the many possibilities for manipulation make them ideal systems to study for the purpose of developing nanoelectronics. First, this article reviews the characteristics of bacterial flagella and their utilization as biologically inspired templates. Next, the use of bio-templates for electronic systems such as dye-sensitized solar cell and lithium ion battery is discussed. Finally, we show the future directions for the use of flagella biotemplatednanomaterials for applications in electrical engineering fields.