a study of how plants conduct electricity research

How plants can generate electricity to power LED light bulbs

Sustainable energy sources, which are pollution free and environmentally friendly, are one of the key challenges of world's future society. The interdisciplinary team of roboticists and biologists at IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Pontedera (Pisa, Italy), found that living plants can help with electricity. Fabian Meder, Barbara Mazzolai and their coworkers at IIT discovered that living plants are literally "green" power source, which may become one of future's electricity supplies that perfectly integrates in natural environments and is accessible all over the world. Researchers discovered that plants can generate, by a single leaf, more than 150 Volts, enough to simultaneously power 100 LED light bulbs. Researchers also showed that an "hybrid tree" made of natural and artificial leaves can act as an innovative "green" electrical generator converting wind into electricity.

Results are published on Advanced Functional Materials .

The research team is based at Center for Micro-Bio Robotics (CMBR) of IIT in Pontedera (Pisa, Italy), coordinated by Barbara Mazzolai, and their goal is to perform advanced research and to develop innovative methodologies, robotic technologies and new materials, inspired by the natural world. Bio-inspired approaches can therefore help to develop robots and technologies that are more suitable for unstructured environments than today's solutions. In 2012 Barbara Mazzolai coordinated the EU funded project Plantoid, which brought to the realization of the first plant robot in the world. In this last study, the research team studied plants and showed that leaves can create electricity when they are touched by a distinct material or by the wind.

Certain leaf structures are capable to convert mechanical forces applied at the leaf surface into electrical energy, because of the specific composition that most plant leaves naturally provide. In detail, the leaf is able to gather electric charges on its surface due to a process called contact electrification. These charges are then immediately transmitted into the inner plant tissue. The plant tissue acts similar to a "cable" and transports the generated electricity to other parts of the plant. Hence, by simply connecting a "plug" to the plant stem, the electricity generated can be harvested and used to power electronic devices. IIT's researchers show that the voltage generated by a single leaf may reach to more than 150 Volts, enough to simultaneously power 100 LED light bulbs each time the leaf is touched.

In the article, researchers additionally describe for the first time how this effect can be used to convert wind into electricity by plants. Therefore, researchers modified a Nerum oleander tree with artificial leaves that touch the natural N. oleander leaves. When wind blows into the plant and moves the leaves, the "hybrid tree" produces electricity. The electricity generated increases the more leaves are touched. Consequently, it can be easily up-scaled by exploiting the whole surface of the foliage of a tree or even a forest.

The study is a first essential step for a new project that Barbara Mazzolai will coordinate in 2019, the European-funded project Growbot whose aim is to realize bioinspired robots that implement plant-like growing motions. The new robots will be then partly powered by the new plant-derived energy source, showing that plants may become one of future's electricity supplies, accessible all over the world.

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Journal Reference :

• Fabian Meder, Indrek Must, Ali Sadeghi, Alessio Mondini, Carlo Filippeschi, Lucia Beccai, Virgilio Mattoli, Pasqualantonio Pingue, Barbara Mazzolai. Energy Conversion at the Cuticle of Living Plants . Advanced Functional Materials , 2018; 1806689 DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201806689

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Plants create energy

Experiments have proven that plants can serve as a source of clean and renewable energy.

As part of the European project PlantPower, researchers are studying whether this technology is suitable for large-scale applications.They are also examining the technical feasibility and the economic profitability.

Scientists all over the world are looking for alternatives to fossil fuels. Plant materials are already used as an energy source through bio-fermentation. Now it appears that living plants can also contribute to energy production. In a plant microbial fuel cell, living plants work together with micro-organisms to create electricity. This results in clean and renewable energy, while the plant remains alive. The first practical tests have been very promising. In projects supported by the EU and Agentschap NL (an agency of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs), European and Dutch institutes, universities, and businesses are cooperating to gain more knowledge about this technology and its applications.

Plant microbial fuel cell

The plant microbial fuel cell , developed by Bert Hamelers of the Sub-department of Environmental Technology at Wageningen University, was first described in 2008. The cell is based on the following principle: With the aid of sunlight, plants convert CO2 into organic compounds (photosynthesis). The plant uses some of the compounds which arise in this way for its own growth, while the remainder is eliminated through the roots. Micro-organisms which are naturally found in the ground around the roots of plants break down these organic compounds. This process causes electrons to be released. It is possible to gather these electrons with an electrode and use them to generate electricity. This system is capable of supplying green energy 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The direct current which is produced in this manner has a low voltage (1V) and as such is not dangerous for animals or plants.

Wageningen scientists

Some of the topics which the PlantPower researchers are examining include the processes in the plant, the micro-organisms in the rhizosphere (root zone), the existing energy losses, and the most suitable materials for a plant microbial fuel cell. Scientists from Wageningen have a prominent role at PlantPower. Bert Hamelers, Assistant Professor at the Sub-department of Environmental Technology, acts as project coordinator. Staff members of his sub-department focus on combining the various constituent processes into a viable system in the plant microbial fuel cell. Researchers from Wageningen UR Greenhouse Horticulture (website in Dutch) are primarily studying the substances eliminated by the plants and the applicability of the cell for food crops such as tomato plants.

Producing electricity

Links (some links in dutch):.

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Scientists create electric circuits inside plants

Senior Lecturer in Plant Biochemistry, University of Westminster

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Stuart Thompson has received funding from MAFF and the Nuffield Foundation.

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Plants power life on Earth. They are the original food source supplying energy to almost all living organisms and the basis of the fossil fuels that feed the power demands of the modern world. But burning the remnants of long-dead forests is changing the world in dangerous ways. Can we better harness the power of living plants today?

One way might be to turn plants into natural solar power stations that could convert sunlight into energy far more efficiently. To do this, we’d need a way of getting the energy out in the form of electricity. One company has found a way to harvest electrons deposited by plants into the soil beneath them. But new research from Finland looks at tapping plants’ energy directly by turning their internal structures into electric circuits.

Plants contain water-filled tubes called “xylem elements” that carry water from their roots to their leaves. The water flow also carries and distributes dissolved nutrients and other things such as chemical signals. The Finnish researchers, whose work is published in PNAS, developed a chemical that was fed into a rose cutting to form a solid material that could carry and store electricity.

Previous experiments have used a chemical called PEDOT to form conducting wires in the xylem, but it didn’t penetrate further into the plant. For the new research, they designed a molecule called ETE-S that forms similar electrical conductors but can also be carried wherever the stream of water travelling though the xylem goes.

This flow is driven by the attraction between water molecules. When water in a leaf evaporates, it pulls on the chain of molecules left behind, dragging water up through the plant all the way from the roots. You can see this for yourself by placing a plant cutting in food colouring and watching the colour move up through the xylem. The researchers’ method was so similar to the food colouring experiment that they could see where in the plant their electrical conductor had travelled to from its colour.

The result was a complex electronic network permeating the leaves and petals, surrounding their cells and replicating their pattern. The wires that formed conducted electricity up to a hundred times better than those made from PEDOT and could also store electrical energy in the same way as an electronic component called a capacitor.

How well these electrical networks formed surprised even their developers. This seems to be because when the roses were treated with ETE-S, they produced the same reactive chemicals that they use to kill invading microorganisms. These chemicals made the formation of the solid electrical conductor work much better inside the plant than when it was tested in the lab.

There are still challenges before this discovery can achieve its full potential. Perhaps most importantly, they need to find a way of getting ETE-S (or some further improved chemical) into intact, living plants. But the creation of “e-plants”, that is plants with integrated electronic circuits, now looks much closer.

So how could e-plants be used? The most exciting possibility will be if we can combine e-plant electrical storage and circuitry with some way to directly tap photosynthetic energy, creating a literally green energy source.

But the technology could also help us better understand regular plants. Plants do not have a nervous system as animals do, but they do use electrical signals both to control individual cells and two carry messages between different parts of the plant. Perhaps the most spectacular example of this is in the Venus flytrap, in which the snapping mechanism is activated by an electrical impulse .

Building electrical circuits into plants will allow us to listen into these messages more easily. Perhaps when we understand their “language” better, we will then be able to send instructions to the plant. For example turning on its defence systems if we know that it is at risk of disease.

Perhaps we could create electronic plants that function like machines. If a crop could tell us if it has too little water or fertiliser, or is being attacked by insects, we could move resources to where they are most needed, improving farming efficiency. Maybe one day you could even use the technology to adjust a flower’s fragrance to match your mood.

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Producing ‘green’ energy — literally — from living plant ‘bio-solar cells’

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

“Self-Enclosed Bio-Photoelectrochemical Cell in Succulent Plants” ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces

Though plants can serve as a source of food, oxygen and décor, they’re not often considered to be a good source of electricity. But by collecting electrons naturally transported within plant cells, scientists can generate electricity as part of a “green,” biological solar cell. Now, researchers reporting in  ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces  have, for the first time, used a succulent plant to create a living “bio-solar cell” that runs on photosynthesis.

In all living cells, from bacteria and fungi to plants and animals, electrons are shuttled around as part of natural, biochemical processes. But if electrodes are present, the cells can actually generate electricity that can be used externally. Previous researchers have created fuel cells in this way with bacteria, but the microbes had to be constantly fed. Instead, scientists, including Noam Adir’s team, have turned to photosynthesis to generate current. During this process, light drives a flow of electrons from water that ultimately results in the generation of oxygen and sugar. This means that living photosynthetic cells are constantly producing a flow of electrons that can be pulled away as a “photocurrent” and used to power an external circuit, just like a solar cell.

Certain plants — like the succulents found in arid environments — have thick cuticles to keep water and nutrients within their leaves. Yaniv Shlosberg, Gadi Schuster and Adir wanted to test, for the first time, whether photosynthesis in succulents could create power for living solar cells using their internal water and nutrients as the electrolyte solution of an electrochemical cell.

The researchers created a living solar cell using the succulent  Corpuscularia lehmannii , also called the “ice plant.” They inserted an iron anode and platinum cathode into one of the plant’s leaves and found that its voltage was 0.28V. When connected into a circuit, it produced up to 20 µA/cm 2  of photocurrent density, when exposed to light and could continue producing current for over a day. Though these numbers are less than that of a traditional alkaline battery, they are representative of just a single leaf. Previous studies on similar organic devices suggest that connecting multiple leaves in series could increase the voltage. The team specifically designed the living solar cell so that protons within the internal leaf solution could be combined to form hydrogen gas at the cathode, and this hydrogen could be collected and used in other applications. The researchers say that their method could enable the development of future sustainable, multifunctional green energy technologies.

The authors acknowledge funding from a “Nevet” grant from the Grand Technion Energy Program (GTEP) and a Technion VPR Berman Grant for Energy Research and support from the Technion’s Hydrogen Technologies Research Laboratory (HTRL).

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• Published: 22 March 2022

ENERGY MATERIALS

Electricity from cells

• Giulia Pacchioni 1  

Nature Reviews Materials volume  7 ,  page 255 ( 2022 ) Cite this article

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Photosynthetic cells, if connected to electrodes, can be used to generate electricity. However, designing efficient cell–electrode interfaces is challenging, and much is still not understood about how energy is transferred across them. Now, writing in Nature Materials , Jenny Zhang and collaborators present a 3D-printing method to fabricate hierarchical electrodes that efficiently harness energy from photosynthetic cells.

To investigate the influence of the electrode’s structure, the researchers developed a new versatile fabrication technique to generate large libraries of electrodes. They adapted an aerosol jet printing method — a printing technique for metal nanoparticle inks — to the fabrication of micropillar electrodes made of indium tin oxide (ITO) nanoparticles. ITO is commonly used for bioelectrodes, because it is inert, conducting and biocompatible. The composition and printing parameters of ITO inks were adapted to print 3D structures, and by varying the composition of the ink precursor it was possible to obtain micropillars with different morphologies, ranging from smooth to rough. This technique was used to fabricate arrays of pillars with different heights and degrees of roughness. The electrodes were then incubated with a bacterial culture to attach photosynthetic bacteria on their surface.

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Original article

Chen, X. et al. 3D-printed hierarchical pillar array electrodes for high-performance semi-artificial photosynthesis. Nat. Mater. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-022-01205-5 (2022)

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• Discoveries and Inventions - Scientific Phenomena to Use with NGSS

Plants Making Electricity

Scientific Phenomena

Photosynthesis is how plants make food. They take the light from the sun and change it into sugars that they use for energy, growth and repair. They collect the light using special proteins in their chlorophyll . Scientists at MIT have invented a way to make those photosynthetic proteins collect light and instead of making it into sugars, they make it into electricity.

They had to find a way to protect the electrodes from the water and salt that the photosynthetic proteins needed to survive. So they created tiny peptide molecules that would wrap around the photosynthetic proteins like a fish tank keeping them wet and working, while the electrodes stayed dry.

So far, the electrical current they made is weak, but building on this new technology, eventually they hope to make enough power to fuel solar cells for computers and cell phones and well -- anything that can sit out in the sun! (Epstein, David. "Will Your Next Computer Be Powered by Spinach?" Discover January 2005: p. 69)

Off site resource from Discover:  http://discovermagazine.com/2005/jan/computer-powered-by-spinach

Now researchers at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have developed a bio-photo-electro-chemical (BPEC) cell using the a membrane extract from spinach leaves to produce electricity with a hydrogen byproduct. This allows the production of electricity with no combustion and so no carbon dioxide or orther greenhouse gases as a by-product.

(American Technion Society. "Popeye was right: There’s energy in that spinach." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 22 September 2016.)

Off site resource Science Daily: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/09/160922085743.htm

Essential Questions

1. Can we generate electricity from plants?

Disciplinary Core Ideas

PS3.D: Energy in Chemical Processes and Everyday Life : LINK The chemical reaction by which plants produce complex food molecules (sugars) requires an energy input (i.e., from sunlight) to occur. In this reaction, carbon dioxide and water combine to form carbon-based organic molecules and release oxygen. (secondary to MS-LS1-6)

Science and Engineering Practices

Developing and Using Models Modeling in 6–8 builds on K–5 experiences and progresses to developing, using, and revising models to describe, test, and predict more abstract phenomena and design systems. • Develop and use a model to describe phenomena. (MS-LS1-2) • Develop a model to describe unobservable mechanisms. (MS-LS1-7) Planning and Carrying Out Investigations Planning and carrying out investigations in 6-8 builds on K-5 experiences and progresses to include investigations that use multiple variables and provide evidence to support explanations or solutions. • Conduct an investigation to produce data to serve as the basis for evidence that meet the goals of an investigation. (MS-LS1-1)

Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions : Apply scientific ideas to construct an explanation for real-world phenomena, examples, or events. Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information : Gather, read, and synthesize information from multiple appropriate sources and assess the credibility, accuracy, and possible bias of each publication and methods used, and describe how they are supported or not supported by evidence.

Crosscutting Concepts

Cause and Effect : Phenomena may have more than one cause, and some cause and effect relationships in systems can only be described using probability.

Systems and System Models • Systems may interact with other systems; they may have sub-systems and be a part of larger complex systems. (MS-LS1-3) Energy and Matter • Matter is conserved because atoms are conserved in physical and chemical processes. (MS-LS1-7) • Within a natural system, the transfer of energy drives the motion and/or cycling of matter. (MS-LS1-6) Structure and Function • Complex and microscopic structures and systems can be visualized, modeled, and used to describe how their function depends on the relationships among its parts, therefore complex natural structures/systems can be analyzed to determine how they function. (MS-LS1-2)

Other questions that were generated in researching this Scientific Phenomena?

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Intergrate this lesson with ngss:.

______________________________________________________________________________

Using Discoveries and Inventions as Scientific Phenomena to Integrate with NGSS: ______________________________________________________________________________ Scientific Phenomena can be used as a tool to anchor a science unit involving a series of lessons to engage in deeper science learning – or what is being called “Three Dimensional Learning”. 1) Describe the phenomena in a way that your students can understand and which sparks their imagination. 2) Create Essential Questions for them to answer to explain the phenomena. 3) Identify the NGSS Disciplinary Core Ideas which you are targeting. 4) Provide clear directions for a process they should use to try to answer the questions using the NGSS Science and Engineering Practices to frame as your guideline.

5) Name the Crosscutting Concepts that students should be aware of throughout the lesson.

6) Discuss the Connections to Nature of Science. 7) Make note of other questions generated in the process of exploring this Scientific Phenomena .

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How to generate electricity from the roots of living plants

"No more competing claims for food versus fuel: put both rice production and power on the same paddy." Image:  REUTERS/Kamal Kishore

.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo{-webkit-transition:all 0.15s ease-out;transition:all 0.15s ease-out;cursor:pointer;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;outline:none;color:inherit;}.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo:hover,.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo[data-hover]{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;}.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo:focus,.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo[data-focus]{box-shadow:0 0 0 3px rgba(168,203,251,0.5);} Marjolein Helder

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Stay up to date:, future of the environment.

Somewhere between three and four billion years ago, algae first appeared. This may not sound exciting, but it paved the way for life on earth and could ultimately point to part of the solution to today’s energy crisis.

Algae, along with other early organisms like cyaonobacteria, is photosynthetic. This means that it’s able to capture carbon and breath out oxygen in return. And we need oxygen to breathe. During the following billions of years, more photosynthetic organisms developed: plants.

The interesting thing about plants is that they convert CO2 into chemical energy - glucose - and produce water and oxygen. So basically plants do what we’re struggling to achieve, in a world threatened by climate change: they capture CO2, produce energy and keep our air clean and breathable. So why can’t we do the same thing? Well, we can’t “do” photosynthesis, but we can use it.

How it all started

At Wageningen University in the Netherlands, a crazy assistant professor, Bert Hamelers, thought that it should be possible to produce electricity from living plants, without harvesting them. He hired a Postdoc to do an experiment and he succeeded. They wrote a research proposal and hired a PhD-student to do more work on it: me.

I didn’t want to be in academia (who wants to be in a lab all day?) but not knowing what to do otherwise I ended up doing a PhD. Basically, my professor lured me into it by telling me that a spin-off company should be created from the research project, and he thought I would be fit to lead it. After just one month, I knew that I’d made the best decision of my life.

How it works

So how do you produce electricity with living plants? Simply by using the natural processes that already occur. In short: the plant produces organic matter via photosynthesis. Only part of this organic matter is then used for its own growth. The rest is excreted via the roots. Around the roots, bacteria feed on the organic matter and they release electrons. If you’re able to harvest the electrons into an electrode, you can couple the first electrode to a counter-electrode and build an electrical circuit, like in a battery. The electrons flow back into the natural system via the counter-electrode, so it’s completely circular.

Because we use the natural processes around the plant, nature is not harmed. It works day and night, summer and winter. It only stops when the plant and its surroundings completely dry up or freeze over. So wetlands would be the ultimate source of electricity. Probably the best thing about this technology is that it can be combined with existing applications for the same land. No more competing claims for food versus fuel: put both rice production and power on the same paddy.

How we can use it

During my PhD, I worked on improving the power output from plants in the lab. At the same time I started a spin-off company, Plant-e, together with my colleague David Strik, to find applications for the technology. When I graduated in 2012 we launched the first product: a turning globe fuelled by the electricity from a plant. Unfortunately, at that time we couldn’t get the product produced so our first market entry failed. But we were able to attract some financing, so we hired some smart young people and worked on the next product.

In 2014 the first product was launched successfully: a modular system. Basically we sell planters with plants and wires that can be connected to LED lights, for example. This is not going to replace coal-fired power plants, but it’s a start. This is the first step towards using what nature has developed over billions of years, without interfering with nature.

The modular system can be used to set up small, self-powered sites in cities, but it is not scalable. So a new system is under development. This new system is a tube, which contains both electrodes and can be drilled horizontally in the root-zone of the plants. This way existing plants can be used to produce electricity and any wetland would ultimately be able to produce electricity.

The next energy revolution?

After wind, solar and hydropower, the full range of biomass sources are now ready for energy production. Our energy revolution has already started. We go from large scale to decentralized energy production, and we start to realize that no one individual source is going to save us.

It’s going to be the full range of alternative, renewable and sustainable technologies that are slowly replacing fossil fuels. I don’t think that one small company of five people in Wageningen, the Netherlands, is going to revolutionize our energy production. But I do want to be part of it.

Author: Marjolein Helder is the CEO of Plant-e, a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer. She is participating in the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos.

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Electrochemistry of plants: basic theoretical research and applications in plant science

• Review Paper
• Published: 13 September 2021
• Volume 25 , pages 2747–2757, ( 2021 )

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• Antonio Doménech-Carbó   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5284-2811 1  

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Electrochemistry of plants can be viewed as a multifaceted research fields including electrophysiological studies around signaling in plants and those associated with the interaction of plants with the environment. Apart from botanic, this research can be implemented into agriculture, food chemistry, ecology, climatology, and other fields with a variety of applications. Vegetal matter can also be applied in sensors, transducers, and as a source for preparing materials to be applied in sensing, energy production, and storage. These aspects are shortly reviewed, including those specifically dealing with solid-state electrochemistry and their capabilities in regard to chemoecological and phylogenetic issues.

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The work was carried out within the framework of project PID2020-113022GB-I00 which was financially supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación and Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) of the Spanish government.

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Doménech-Carbó, A. Electrochemistry of plants: basic theoretical research and applications in plant science. J Solid State Electrochem 25 , 2747–2757 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-021-05046-1

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Received : 14 July 2021

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Accepted : 31 August 2021

Published : 13 September 2021

Issue Date : December 2021

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-021-05046-1

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IIT researchers show how plants can generate electricity to power LED light bulbs

In Advanced Functional Materials, the study shows that single plant leaves can generate more than 150 volts; a 'hybrid tree' made of natural and artificial leaves can act as an innovative 'green' electric generator

Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia - IIT

image: The hybrid plant is made of natural and artificial leaves. When wind blows into the plant and moves the leaves, the 'hybrid tree' produces electricity. view more 

Credit: IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia

Sustainable energy sources, which are pollution free and environmentally friendly, are one of the key challenges of world's future society. The interdisciplinary team of roboticists and biologists at IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Pontedera (Pisa, Italy), found that living plants can help with electricity. Fabian Meder, Barbara Mazzolai and their coworkers at IIT discovered that living plants are literally "green" power source, which may become one of future's electricity supplies that perfectly integrates in natural environments and is accessible all over the world. Researchers discovered that plants can generate, by a single leaf, more than 150 Volts, enough to simultaneously power 100 LED light bulbs. Researchers also showed that an "hybrid tree" made of natural and artificial leaves can act as an innovative "green" electrical generator converting wind into electricity.

Results are published on Advanced Functional Materials .

The research team is based at Center for Micro-Bio Robotics (CMBR) of IIT in Pontedera (Pisa, Italy), coordinated by Barbara Mazzolai, and their goal is to perform advanced research and to develop innovative methodologies, robotic technologies and new materials, inspired by the natural world. Bio-inspired approaches can therefore help to develop robots and technologies that are more suitable for unstructured environments than today's solutions. In 2012 Barbara Mazzolai coordinated the EU funded project Plantoid , which brought to the realization of the first plant robot in the world. In this last study, the research team studied plants and showed that leaves can create electricity when they are touched by a distinct material or by the wind.

Certain leaf structures are capable to convert mechanical forces applied at the leaf surface into electrical energy, because of the specific composition that most plant leaves naturally provide. In detail, the leaf is able to gather electric charges on its surface due to a process called contact electrification. These charges are then immediately transmitted into the inner plant tissue. The plant tissue acts similar to a "cable" and transports the generated electricity to other parts of the plant. Hence, by simply connecting a "plug" to the plant stem, the electricity generated can be harvested and used to power electronic devices. IIT's researchers show that the voltage generated by a single leaf may reach to more than 150 Volts, enough to simultaneously power 100 LED light bulbs each time the leaf is touched.

In the article, researchers additionally describe for the first time how this effect can be used to convert wind into electricity by plants. Therefore, researchers modified a Nerum oleander tree with artificial leaves that touch the natural N. oleander leaves. When wind blows into the plant and moves the leaves, the "hybrid tree" produces electricity. The electricity generated increases the more leaves are touched. Consequently, it can be easily up-scaled by exploiting the whole surface of the foliage of a tree or even a forest.

The study is a first essential step for a new project that Barbara Mazzolai will coordinate in 2019, the European-funded project Growbot whose aim is to realize bioinspired robots that implement plant-like growing motions. The new robots will be then partly powered by the new plant-derived energy source, showing that plants may become one of future's electricity supplies, accessible all over the world.

Advanced Functional Materials

10.1002/adfm.201806689

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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Home → Research

Electricity from trees

You're not going to power too many devices with electricity from trees. But it is a very interesting phenomenon.

Researchers have figured out a way to ‘plug’ into electrical power generated by trees. Although this isn’t a practical way to power up electric circuits, it still offers intriguing insights into the biochemical processes in trees — and maybe about electricity itself.

Tree electricity is not like potato electricity

It has been a well known fact for years that plants can conduct electricity (humans can too, take care kids). Now scientists from MIT found out just how much they can pack up: 200 millivolts of electrical power (=0.2 volts). To put it into perspective, that’s 25 times less than the 5 volts that power radios and other small devices.

The lemon and potato battery experiments are already notorious, but this is something else. The mechanism through which researchers can harvest electricity from trees is completely different.

“We specifically didn’t want to confuse this effect with the potato effect, so we used the same metal for both electrodes,” said Babak Parviz, a professor of electrical engineering at Washington University and co-author of the study.

After spending months surveying trees and analyzing their current flow, Parviz and colleagues found that big leaf maple trees can generate generated a steady voltage.

However, in order to become practical, a much higher voltage is necessary. So researchers built a boost converter capable of picking up really little voltages and storing them and then producing a greater output.

With this device, researchers were able to generate an output voltage of 1.1 volts. Already, this is enough to power some sensors. For instance, some environmental sensors that track temperature or humidity.

Essentially, the tree would be powering the sensors with its own electricity.

The full study will be published in the upcoming issue of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Transactions on Nanotechnology . It’s not really as practical as other options, but it could prove to be quite significant, especially for different types of sensors.

“Normal electronics are not going to run on the types of voltages and currents that we get out of a tree.” Parviz said. “As new generations of technology come online, I think it’s warranted to look back at what’s doable or what’s not doable in terms of a power source.”

But this isn’t the only time researchers drew electricity from trees.

Fabian Meder, Barbara Mazzolai, and their coworkers at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Pontedera (Pisa, Italy), also harvested electricity. This team showed that in some instances, plants can generate, by a single leaf, more than 150 Volts when you touch them.

Researchers also describe how this effect can be used to transform wind into electricity through plants. Yet again, this isn’t going to be significant in the grand scheme of things, for now, but it shows how plants and electricity interact together in unforeseen ways.

Who knows, maybe in the future, we can even find a way to use this. But for now, this is not meant to be used by humans. In fact, researchers suspect it can be used as a tool to look at a tree’s health and its biology.

“It’s not exactly established where these voltages come from. But there seems to be some signaling in trees, similar to what happens in the human body but with slower speed,” Parviz said. “I’m interested in applying our results as a way of investigating what the tree is doing. When you go to the doctor, the first thing that they measure is your pulse. We don’t really have something similar for trees.”

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Plants at Home

Can Plants Conduct Electricity?

For every electrical circuit to work, the current must be able to flow through the various components. So, what happens if we use a plant as an electrical component?

Can plants conduct electricity?

No, plants in their natural state cannot conduct electricity. However, if the conditions are altered or conductive elements are used in the plant, they can conduct electricity. While this shows that plants can be used to conduct electricity, we must remember that it can only be done artificially.

Let us explore how plants can be made to conduct electricity.

Electrical Conductor

An electrical conductor is a material through which electrical current can flow easily. It is the opposite of an electrical insulator, which is a material that prevents the flow of electricity through it. An example of a good conductor is copper or gold, which offers minimal resistance. Hence, copper or gold is generally used in circuits.

However, the question of whether plants can be used as a conductor is still a question that has not been completely answered by science.

Scientific Research

In 2015, Swedish researchers successfully showed that electricity could be circulated through a plant. It was done by injecting a conductive gel into the plant. It enabled the plant to successfully conduct electricity and also opened certain possibilities. It could be used to manage plant growth as well as produce electricity through photosynthesis.

Conductivity of Plants

Plants are essentially made up of around 80 to 95% water. We know that water can be used as a conductor. It contains sediments and minerals that ionize the water molecules and allow electricity to be conducted very well through it. Thus, it makes plants good conductors of electricity.

Green Energy

With global warming taking its toll the production of green and clean energy has become one of the primary concerns. While electricity in itself is clean, the means to produce it, such as coal, oil, or nuclear power tend to cause serious environmental hazards.

While science has rapidly progressed to develop cleaner sources of electricity production such as solar panels, hydroelectricity, and wind turbines, they have only been used on a small scale. So, the development of energy through plants could be a game-changer due to the abundant presence of plants on earth.

Bionic Plants

The Swedish researchers successfully developed a bionic rose that could conduct electricity. It was done by creating a water-soluble polymer called PEDOT-S, which was integrated into the plant by using the polymer dissolved water for watering the plant. It helped the researchers create a circuit, that used the xylem, veins, and leaves of the plant to conduct electricity. It was the first conductive plant in the world.

Final Words

Thus, we can see that no plant has the natural ability to conduct. However, the development of the bionic rose has opened up the possibility of being able to capture the energy of the plant, that is generated through photosynthesis and to use it to produce the required green and clean energy. However, the commercial viability of this project is yet to be explored.

Related posts:

• Do Plants Have Feelings?
• Do Plants Have DNA?
• Do Plants Have Organs?
• Do Plant Cells Have Centrioles?
• Do Plant Cells Have Mitochondria?
• Do Plant Cells Have Chloroplasts?
• What Do Plant Cells Have That Animal Cells Do Not?
• Do Plant Cells Have Vacuoles?

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