WOW! FLOWER POWER IS HAPPENING NOW!

Flower power is now more than just an ideal. Thanks to researchers at Linköping University, in Sweden, flowers, plants, and trees, may soon be used to generate electricity as they grow, among other cool things.

It turns out that the vascular system in plants, which transports nutrients from roots to leaves and flowers and aids in photosynthesis, it quite similar to systems that transport ions in an electrical circuit.

The Swedish scientists created the world's first electronically augmented plant, building circuits inside living flowers using semiconductive polymers.The research team figured out how to combine electric signals with the plant’s own signalling system.

This development has sparked the emerging field of organic electronics, based on semi-conductive polymers, which utilizes both ions and electrons as signal carriers.

According to the study findings, published in the journal Science Advances, “The four key components of a circuit have been achieved using the xylem, leaves, veins, and signals of the plant as the template and integral part of the circuit elements and functions.”

There are many applications already being considered for flower power. One is to literally create “power plants” -- plants capable of generating electricity. Imagine powering the lights in your house with the living plants inside -- or possible with flowers growing in your garden!

Researcher placed roses into a solution of PEDOT-S, a water soluble polymer that is unique in that it is both a conductor and transparent. The polymer was absorbed by the rose and capillary action pulls the polymer up into the rose’s vascular tissue or xylem. If you’ve ever dipped a flower into a dye solution and watched its leaves and blossoms change color, you’ve seen this idea in action.

When absorbed into a flower, the polymer gets converted into a hydrogel, forming a thin film along the walls of the capillaries that is permeable so the plant can still absorb the water and nutrients it needs. These plants are still alive months later.

After the plants absorbed the water, hardened polymer distributed through the plant acted as a conductive “wire.” This, in effect, formed electrochemical cells… in essence creating electrochromatic plants.

“With integrated and distributed electronics in plants, one can envisage a range of applications including precision recording and regulation of physiology, energy harvesting from photosynthesis, and alternatives to genetic modification for plant optimisation,” the researchers proposed.

Another cool aspect of this new technology is that it circumvents one of the classic vulnerabilities of most electronic circuits -- wet conditions do not negatively affect it. By encasing bioelectronics in a plant, with the tissue fully encapsulating the polymer, it is protected from wind and rain.

The new flower power possibilities are huge. A whole new field of research has opened up to explore them. Scientists are looking at placing sensors in plants and using the energy formed in the chlorophyll to produce green antennas or produce new materials.

In the future, flower power may help regulate plant physiology, controlling the when and how often flowers bloom, based on the weather or the availability of water.

And, instead of burning trees, we might tap out some of their energy using flower power, without killing them. The technology might also be used to create photosynthesis-based fuel cells or produce important molecules more quickly for use in medicine.

So, flower power is even more beautiful than we ever thought! Stay tuned!

Read more about Beautiful Flora in Beautiful Flora in 10 New Beautiful Books Now.

And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact Daily Fix posts.

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IMAGE CREDITS:

1. Image: by Alan L. “Lokelani.”
2. Image: by Justin McGregor. “Electric Rose.”
3. Image: by Andrea Scauri Biophotos. “Cucurbita maxima - Xilema.”
4. Courtesy of Linköping University. “Researchers Used a Conductive Polymer to Create ‘Wired’ Roses.”
5. Image: by Eliot Gomez. Courtesy of Linköping University. “Roses Have Been Infiltrated with Conductive Polymers in their Leaves or Stems.”
6. Image: by Clyde Robinson. “sassy neon glow red rose.”
7. Image: by Rosarian67. “JHFE.”
8. Image: by Mark Robinson. “A Rose In The Rain.”
9. Image: by Shichuan. “Microscopic Shot: Stem of First Year Pinus taiwanensis, Cross Section.”
10. Image: by T.Kiya. “Ume Blossoms.”
11. Image: by Cassie. “White Roses.”
12. Image: by warutledge. “phloem, xylem, trifolium.”
13. Image: by BN App - Download now!
14. Image: by Justin McGregor. “Electric Rose. An Ordinary Peach Rose…”