Plants have a built-in wiring. Their leaves, stems and roots are packed with circuitry that allows them to convey chemical signals vital to their growth and life. For example, plants use this circuitry to photosynthesize.
A group of researchers in Sweden just figured out how to hijack that circuitry to conduct electricity. They say that in the future, they might even be able to harness photosynthesis for voltage to power home electronics.
The researchers, from Linköping University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, used the natural circuitry in roses to form a transistor. "From a certain perspective, these features are analogous to the contacts, interconnections, devices and wires" of electronic circuits, they write in a paper published Tuesday in the journal Science Advances. So analogous, in fact, that they appear to work as actual electronic circuits quite well.
The researchers placed cut roses in a water solution containing a water-soluble polymer called "PEDOT-S:H." The roses absorbed the water, taking the polymer directly into their circuitry. The polymer hardened, forming hydrogel "wires" capable of conducting electricity. In contact with electrolytes already present in the roses, the "wires" effectively formed a transistor that converted the plant's natural electrochemical signals into electricity—electricity that the researchers say might one day be accessed for human use.
The amount of electricity to be wrung out of a houseplant is small, Magnus Berggren, a materials engineer at Linköping University and one of the study's authors, explained to The New York Times. But the applications could be wider.
"Today, the most natural way to convert the chemical energy of a tree is to burn it, but maybe we could actually gently tap out some of the energy without killing it," Berggren told the paper.
The researchers also speculated that harnessing a plant's natural electrochemical signals might be an effective way to control or modify its growth. Now we use topical chemicals or genetic engineering to modify the way plants grow or respond to their environment. But if the experiment was extrapolated on a wider scale and developed further, Berggren imagines this method could do the same or more. He told the Times he imagines one could use it to regulate a plant's bloom time, optimizing its life cycle for weather conditions or water availability.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Zoë is a senior writer at Newsweek. She covers science, the environment, and human health. She has written for a ... Read more
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