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Microbial nanowires for sustainable electronics

  • Review Article
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From Nature Reviews Bioengineering

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Abstract

Microbial protein nanowires are emerging as an alternative to abiotic nanowires for electronics applications. Microbial nanowires are sustainably produced, robust, non-toxic, biodegradable and uniquely malleable to precision genetic tailoring, which can confer specific functionalities. At present, the microbial nanowires that seem most adaptable to electronics applications are curli fibres, electrically conductive pili (e-pili) and c-type cytochrome filaments. These nanowires are all highly resistant to conditions that denature most proteins. Editing of the genes encoding curli fibre and e-pili monomers has yielded nanowires with enhanced functions, including increased conductivity, improved sensor selectivity and sensitivity, metal-binding properties, increased surface attachment, and improved nanowire alignment. Such microbial nanowires are highly processable in the organic solvents required for some device fabrication methods and readily incorporated into polymers without loss of function. This Review describes promising electronic devices for sensing, electricity generation and neuromorphic memory that depend on microbial nanowire components and discusses preliminary evidence of the feasibility of other microbial nanowire applications such as transistors, optoelectronics and supercapacitors. Factors that affect the commercialization of microbial nanowire-based electronics are also considered.

Key points

  • Microbial nanowires offer advantages over comparable abiotic materials, such as silicon nanowires and carbon nanotubes, because microbial products can be produced from renewable feedstocks without requiring high energy inputs or toxic reagents.

  • Microbial nanowires can be precision genetically tailored to have specific conductivities and functionalities. Tailoring can be accomplished simply by modifying the amino acid content of nanowire monomers and/or altering their encoding genes.

  • Functional re-engineering and incorporation into novel electronic devices have already been demonstrated for curli fibres and electrically conductive pili. Cytochrome nanowires also have unique properties with potential applications in electronics.

  • Sensors with high specificity and selectivity as well as novel memory and electricity-generating devices have been fabricated with microbial nanowires. Other envisioned applications include supercapacitors and transistors.

  • Escherichia coli is an effective chassis for large-scale production of curli fibres and electrically conductive pili, but substantial optimization of microbial nanowire production and harvesting is required for commercial-scale filament production.

  • Continued prospection of the microbial world to identify new types of microbial nanowires is warranted to expand the potential functionality options for the fabrication of novel nanowire-based materials and devices.

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Fig. 1: Microbial nanowires with potential applications in electronic devices.
Fig. 2: Tuning and modification of curli fibres and e-pili characteristics.
Fig. 3: Strategies for assembly of microbial nanowires into large structures.
Fig. 4: Strategies for improving the mass production of microbial nanowires.
Fig. 5: Electronic devices fabricated with microbial nanowires.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Baylor University, Waco, TX, USA

    Matthew J. Guberman-Pfeffer

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, McGill University, Montréal, Quebec, Canada

    Noémie-Manuelle Dorval Courchesne

  3. Electrobiomaterials Institute, Key Laboratory for Anisotropy and Texture of Materials (Ministry of Education), Northeastern University, Shenyang, China

    Derek R. Lovley

  4. Department of Microbiology and Institute for Applied Life Sciences (IALS), University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA

    Derek R. Lovley

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  1. Matthew J. Guberman-Pfeffer
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  2. Noémie-Manuelle Dorval Courchesne
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  3. Derek R. Lovley
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The authors contributed equally to all aspects of the article.

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Correspondence to Derek R. Lovley.

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Competing interests

N.-M.D.C. declares that she is an inventor on US Patent No.11,643,443, which is related to microbial nanowires. D.R.L. declares that he is an inventor on US Patent Nos. 7,498,155, 11,066,449, 11,631,824, 11,823,808 and 11,982,637, which are related to microbial nanowires. M.J.G-P. declares no competing interests.

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Guberman-Pfeffer, M.J., Dorval Courchesne, NM. & Lovley, D.R. Microbial nanowires for sustainable electronics. Nat Rev Bioeng (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44222-024-00204-2

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