Harnessing flower power
Plants could be wired up and used like solar cells to produce energy through photosynthesis, say researchers
Scientists have woven electronics into the vascular system of living plants for the first time in a breakthrough which could allow them to convert photosynthesis into power.
A team at Linkping University in Sweden wired up a garden rose by setting the flower into a basin of water containing a soluble polymer which conducts electricity.
As the rose sucked up the water it also took in the electronic material which then integrated into the flowers own biology. It is the same process that allows flowers to be coloured by dipping the stems in dyed water.
Once inside the plant the polymer was designed to self-organise to form a wire with the help of the ions that are already present in the flower. The team showed it was possible to create an electric circuit using the embedded wire.
Lead author Professor Magnus Berggren said: As far as we know, there are no previously published research results regarding electronics produced in plants. No ones done this before. Now we can really start talking about power plants - we can place sensors in plants and use the energy formed in the chlorophyll, produce green antennas, or produce new materials.
Everything occurs naturally, and we use the plants own very advanced, unique systems.
Plants are complex organisms that rely on the transport of ionic signals and hormones to perform everyday functions.
Controlling the chemical pathways in plants could pave the way to photosynthesis-based fuel cells and devices that modulate the internal functions of plants so that they could produce important molecules more quickly, such as those needed for medicines.
The idea of putting electronics directly into trees for the paper industry originated in the 1990s while the Linkping University team was researching printed electronics on paper. However the team ran out of funding and only recently returned to her project to see if could still be viable.
Researchers also introduced a special type of electronic material into the plant leaves that caused the leaves to light up and change colour by applying voltage.
The research was recently published in the journal Science Advances.
Source: The Telegraph
