LCN researchers at King’s College London have been awarded £5 million from the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) to develop a new class of adaptable materials built from purpose-engineered proteins, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Bristol.
The project, led by Professor Mark Wallace (King’s Department of Chemistry), is part of the ARIA Universal Fabricators programme. It brings together expertise in protein engineering, nanomaterials, plasmonics and single-molecule imaging, with the aim of ultimately developing cheaper battery and sensor technologies.
Dr Aliaksandra Rakovich and Dr Wayne Dickson (King’s Department of Physics), will contribute their expertise in plasmonics and nanomaterials, working alongside protein-design specialists Dr Aimee Boyle and Professor Dek Woolfson at the University of Bristol.
The team aims to develop two-dimensional protein materials that can self-organise into highly ordered structures, creating a new route from precisely designed molecules to functional materials that can be manufactured at scale.
The outstanding challenge is maintaining that molecular-level order without accumulating defects as the material scales up, because defects disrupt the very properties you designed in. Our approach is built around solving that problem.
Professor Mark Wallace, King’s College London
A key focus will be large-area plasmonic metasurfaces: nanostructured optical materials that can manipulate and concentrate light in highly controlled ways. Using engineered proteins to help assemble these nanoscale structures could enable cheaper, scalable metasurfaces for highly sensitive sensors capable of detecting tiny traces of disease markers, pollutants or explosives. They could also support photocatalytic technologies that use light to produce hydrogen or break down pollutants.
The project will also investigate protein membranes capable of selectively filtering lithium ions, potentially offering a cleaner and more efficient route to producing the high-purity lithium required for battery manufacturing.
ARIA is an R&D funding agency created to unlock technological breakthroughs that benefit everyone. Created by an Act of Parliament and sponsored by the Department of Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, ARIA funds teams of scientists and engineers to pursue research at the edge of what is scientifically and technologically possible.
