Pyroelectricity in globular protein lysozyme films

Pyroelectricity is the ability of certain non-centrosymmetric materials to generate an electric chargein response to a change in temperature and finds use in a range of applications from burglar alarms to thermal imaging. Some biological materials also exhibit pyroelectricity but the examples of the effect are limited to fibrous proteins, polypeptides, and tissues and organs of animals and plants. Here, we report pyroelectricity in polycrystalline aggregate films of lysozyme, a globular protein