LiU Researchers Create Electronic Plants

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“We’ve produced the perfect measurement values, which show that it really is a fully functional transistor,” Ms Stavrinidou says.

She has measured the conductive ability of the polymer from 0.13 siemens/cm all the way up to 1 siemens/cm.

Mr Gomez used another method common in plant biology – vacuum infiltration – to send another PEDOT variant together with nanocellulose fibres into the foliage of the rose. The cellulose forms a 3-D structure with small cavities – like a sponge – inside the rose leaf, and the cavities are filled with the conductive polymer. Electrochemical cells are thus formed with a number of pixels, partitioned by the veins. The electrolytes come from the fluid in the leaf. This means that the leaf functions in somewhat the same way as the printed character display on a roll that is manufactured at Acreo Swedish ICT in Norrköping.

The research group at the Laboratory of Organic Electronics, from the left Daniel Simon, Roger Gabrielsson, Eleni Stavrinidou, Eliot Gomez and Magnus Berggren. Xavier Crispin is missing.

“We can create electrochromatic plants in which the leaves change color – it’s cool, but maybe not so useful,” Mr Gomez says. 

But what is otherwise a weakness of organic electronics – the cold and the wet – is solved by the plant when it encapsulates the polymer and protects it from wind and weather.

“It seems as if the polymers we use had been created for their function,” Mr Gabrielsson states.

Professor Berggren sees an entirely new field of research:

“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,” he says.

“As far as we know, there are no previously published research results regarding electronics produced in plants. No one’s done this before,” Professor Berggren states.

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