Imagine a world in which roses could produce electricity. We can use photosynthesis to heat and drive our vehicles, as well as our industrial machinery. After wiring rose plants up and making them work as solar cells, a group of Swedish researchers believes this is possible. Scientists from Sweden’s Umea Plant Science Center, Linkoping University Laboratory For Organic Electronics and Linkoping University Laboratory of Organic Electronics explained that analog and digital electronic circuits can be made with living plants, trees and bushes. Magnus Berggren, the team leader and his colleagues, said they had created the essential components of an electronic circuit using channels in the plants that provide water and nutrients. Imagine a world in which plants could produce electricity. This would allow us to drive cars and heat homes as well as provide energy for industry. Linkoping University: Analog and Digital Electronic Circuits in Roses. They demonstrated how roses could produce analog and digital circuits that can be used for controlling the plants’ physiology. While traditional electronics transmit and process digital signals, plants handle growth hormones and ions. Organic electronics are based on semiconductive polymers and can use both electrons and ions as signals carriers. Polymer refers to a substance that is made up of a number of identical units, bonded together. Organic electronics allows you to mix the electrical signals of the plants with those of the plants. This is how traditional electronic devices are created. Fuel cells can store photosynthesis energy. There are many potential uses for cheap organic electronics that have been integrated into plants. These include reading and controlling how plants function or using energy from photosynthesis to fuel a fuel cell. Starting from the left, the Laboratory of Organic Electronics research team, including Roger Gabrielsson and Eleni Stanidou as well as Eliot Gomez, Magnus Berggren, Magnus Berggren, Magnus Berggren, Magnus Berggren, Roger Gabrielsson and Roger Gabrielsson. Xavier Crispin has been missing. Image: Linkoping University. Ove Nilsson is a professor at Umea’s Plant Science Center and a co-author of this article. He said that “Until recently, there were no reliable tools to measure the concentrations of different molecules in live plants. We will now be able influence the levels of various substances that control growth and development in plants. “I see tremendous opportunities to learn more.” Professor Berggren has studied printed electronic paper over the last twenty-five year. Although he was attracted to the idea of electronic plants, he never received financial backing. All was changed by Prof. Berggren in 2012 When the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation supported his idea with hard money, everything changed. Eleni Staprinidou and Eliot Gomez, all with doctorates in their respective fields, were immediately recruited by Berggren. Their task was to find out if it was possible for plants to produce and introduce electronics. They had the support of Linkoping University and the Umea Plant Science Center. Scientists wrote that integrated electronics could be used in plants for a variety of purposes, including the regulation and precision of physiology and energy harvesting, as well as alternative genetic modifications to improve plant performance. They were able to make plants produce both analog and digital circuits in 24 months. Dr. Gabrielsson discovered PEDOT-S which is a water-soluble, polymer. Dr. Gabrielsson discovered PEDOT-S, a water-soluble polymer. The hydrogel formed along the channel where the rose absorbed the material. Next, Dr. Stavrinidou was a postdoctoral researcher at Linkoping University’s Laboratory of Organic Electronics. He got the plants producing 10-cm sections, 50cm in thickness, of membranes of conductive polymer. The electrodes were placed at the ends of each transistor with a gate at its middle. The creation of a transistor in a plant was explained by Dr. Stavrinidou: “We have the perfect measurements values which prove that it is truly a functional transistor.” Dr. Stavrinidou measured the polymer’s conductivity from 0. 13 up to 1 siemens/cm. To send another variant of the PEDOT along with nanocellulose fibres to the rose’s leaves, Dr. Gomez utilized vacuum infiltration. This is a common method used in plant biology. In the rose’s leaf, the cellulose forms a three-dimensional structure that contains small cavities. These cavities are then filled with the conductive plasticmer. This creates electrochemical cells with many pixels that are divided by the veins. Electrolytes are contained in the leaf’s fluid. Dr. Gomez stated that “we can create electrochromatic leaves in which the leaf’s color changes – it is cool but not as useful.” This plant protects the polymer from damage by sealing it in the fluid. Dr. Gabrielsson stated that it seemed as though the polymers used were created to perform a specific function. Professor Berggren added: “Now, we can start talking about power plants – sensors can be placed in plants and can use energy from the chlorophyll. We can also produce new materials or make green antennas. All of this happens naturally and we use plants’ very unique, advanced systems.” This is the first time this has been done.” Reference: “Electronic Plants,” Ove Nailsson, Eleni Stanidou and Roger Gabrielsson. Science Advances Vol. 1, no. 10, e1501136. 20 November, 2015. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv. 1501136.
