By embedding spinach leaves with carbon
nanotubes, MIT engineers have transformed spinach plants into sensors
that can detect explosives and wirelessly relay that information to a
handheld device similar to a smartphone.
Credit: Christine Daniloff/MIT
This is one of the first demonstrations of engineering electronic
systems into plants, an approach that the researchers call "plant
nanobionics." In this case, Spinach plants were designed to detect chemical compounds
known as nitroaromatics, which are often used in landmines and other
explosives. When one of these chemicals is present in the groundwater
sampled naturally by the plant, carbon nanotubes embedded in the plant
leaves emit a fluorescent signal that can be read with an infrared
camera. The camera can be attached to a small computer similar to a
smartphone, which then sends an email to the user.
Ref: Min Hao Wong et al., (2016), Nitroaromatic detection and infrared communication from wild-type plants using plant nanobionics, Nature materials.
Full Text
DOI: 10.1038/nmat4771
No comments:
Post a Comment