Storing energy in plants with electronic roots

Date:
November 8, 2021
Source:
Linko"ping University
Summary:
By watering bean plants (Phaseolus vulgaris) with a solution that
contains conjugated oligomers, researchers at the Laboratory of
Organic Electronics, Linko"ping University, Sweden, have shown
that the roots of the plant become electrically conducting and
can store energy.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
By watering bean plants (Phaseolus vulgaris) with a solution that
contains conjugated oligomers, researchers at the Laboratory of Organic Electronics, Linko"ping University, have shown that the roots of the
plant become electrically conducting and can store energy.


==========================================================================
Dr Eleni Stavrinidou, Associate Professor and Principal Investigator in
the Electronic Plants Group at the Laboratory of Organic Electronics,
showed in 2015 that circuits can be fabricated in the vascular tissue
of roses. The conducting polymer PEDOT was absorbed by the plant's
vascular system to form electrical conductors that were used to make transistors. In a later work in 2017, she demonstrated that a conjugated oligomer, ETE-S, could polymerise in the plant and form conductors that
can be used to store energy.

"We have previously worked with plants cuttings, which were able to
take up and organise conducting polymers or oligomers. However, the
plant cuttings can survive for only a few days, and the plant is not
growing anymore. In this new study we use intact plants, a common bean
plant grown from seed, and we show that the plants become electrically conducting when they are watered with a solution that contains oligomers,"
says Eleni Stavrinidou.

The researchers here have used a trimer, ETE-S, which is polymerised by
a natural process in the plant. A conducting film of polymer is formed
on the roots of the plant, which causes the complete root system to
function as a network of readily accessible conductors.

The bean plant roots remained electrically conducting for at least
four weeks, with a conductivity in the roots of approximately 10 S/cm
(Siemens per centimetre).

The researchers investigated the possibility of using the roots to
store energy, and built a root-based supercapacitor in which the roots functioned as electrodes during charging and discharging. "Supercapacitors based on conducting polymers and cellulose are an eco-friendly
alternative for energy storage that is both cheap and scalable," says
Eleni Stavrinidou.

The root-based supercapacitor worked well, and could store 100 times more energy than previous experiments with supercapacitors in plants that used
the plant stem. The device can also be used over extended periods of time
since the bean plants in the experiments continued to live and thrive.

"The plant develops a more complex root system, but is otherwise not
affected: it continues to grow and produce beans," Eleni Stavrinidou
assures us.

The results, which have been published in the scientific journal
Materials Horizons, are highly significant, not just for the development
of sustainable energy storage, but also for the development of new
biohybrid systems, such as functional materials and composites. The
electronic roots are also a major contribution to the development of
seamless communication between electronic and biological systems.

The research group consists of researchers from the Laboratory of Organic Electronics, the Umeaa Plant Science Center, the Wallenberg Wood Science
Center at Linko"ping University, and from universities and research
institutes in France, Greece and Spain.

Funding bodies for the research have included the EU Horizon Programme
FET- OPEN-HyPhOE, the Swedish Research Council, the Wallenberg Wood
Science Center, and the Strategic Research Area in Materials Science on Functional Materials (AFM) at Linko"ping University.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Linko"ping_University. Original
written by Monica Westman Svenselius. Note: Content may be edited for
style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Daniela Parker, Yohann Daguerre, Gwennae"l Dufil, Daniele Mantione,
Eduardo Solano, Eric Cloutet, Georges Hadziioannou, Torgny Na"sholm,
Magnus Berggren, Eleni Pavlopoulou, Eleni Stavrinidou. Biohybrid
plants with electronic roots via in vivo polymerization of
conjugated oligomers.

Materials Horizons, 2021; DOI: 10.1039/D1MH01423D ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/11/211108114838.htm

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