HARVESTING ELECTRICAL ENERGY FROM FLOWERS

Researchers have woven electrical components into the vascular structure of living plants for the first time, a break through which would convert photosynthesis (a process used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy, normally from the Sun, into chemical energy that can be later released to fuel the organisms' activities) into electrical energy for us to use in our everyday lives. 

 

A group at Linköping University in Sweden 'wired up' a garden rose by placing the flower into a bowl of water containing a solvent polymer that conducts electricity. As the rose sucked up the water it additionally took in the electronic material which then fused into the blossom's biology. It is the same process that permits flowers to be coloured by placing the stems in coloured or dyed water. 

Once inside the plant the polymer was designed to self-arrange into the shape of a wire with the assistance of the particles that already exist in the plants biological structure. The team from the university demonstrated on how possible it was to generate an electrical current from the embedded wire circuit found within the plant. 

 

Lead author Professor Magnus Berggren said: “As far as we know, there is no previously published research results regarding electronics produced in plants. No one's 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 intricate living beings that depend on the movement of ionic signals and hormones to perform regular functions. 

 

Controlling the chemical pathways in plants could initiate photosynthesis-based fuel cells and devices that regulate the inner chemical processes of plants with the goal that they could produce important molecules that are desperately needed for medication more quickly. 

 

The thought of installing electronic systems specifically into trees for the paper business began in the 1990s while the Linköping University group where researching printed electronics on paper. However the team fell short of additional financing at the time, and have only recently returned to see it could be practical. 

 

Scientists similarly presented a unique kind of electronic composite into plant leaves that brought about the leaves to light up and change colour by applying a certain voltage to it.