Electronic Implants in Plants: They Work and They're Electronic

There are now analog and digital electronic circuits within some live plants, and a research team at Sweden's Linköping University, who put them there, say this is part of using roses' vascular systems to construct key parts of electronic circuits, according to a release.

The researchers recently reported their findings in the journal Science Advances.

In order for plants to function, they need ionic signals (signals from molecules with a net electronic charge) and hormones to be able to move about and to perform necessary jobs. But they do this more slowly than the systems of mammals and other creatures do--which makes studying their systems more of a challenge. If scientists can essentially illuminate the processes using electronic functions, they'd be able to combine the electrical signals with the plant's chemical processes. Further, knowing how to control and work with plants' chemical pathways would later allow scientists to create fuel cells based on photosynthesis, and to draw up sensors, growth regulators and machines that can modulate plants' interior functions, said the release.

"Previously, we had no good tools for measuring the concentration of various molecules in living plants. Now we'll be able to influence the concentration of the various substances in the plant that regulate growth and development. Here, I see great possibilities for learning more," Ove Nilsson, director of the Umeå Plant Science Center and co-author of the article, said in the release.

Electronic insertion into trees is an idea that originated in the 1990s. In 2012, Professor Magnus Berggren and his team tried inserting polymers that conduct electricity into rose stems. Only one of those, which the researchers called PEDOT-S, worked and assembled itself into xylem cells (which transport water in plants) as conducting wires, and still allowed water and nutrients to be transported. When the wires were combined with the cells' surrounding electrolyte, the researchers created a transitor that can change ionic signals to put out an electronic output, according to a statement.

The scientists were also able to make the PEDOT change color after applying voltage that made the polymer communicate with the leaf's ions, said the statement.

After this, eventually the researchers hope to create applications for environmental sustainability, energy and ways to interact with plants.

Professor Berggren added in the statement, "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."

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