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Fig. 5 shows a roadmap of next developments that are realistic
for advancing the technology on the one hand as a
self-powered sensor technology (which means using the signals
generated by the plant as sensor signals, e.g., for wind
analysis) and on the other hand as an energy harvesting
method. Next to improving the power output through material
advancement, the coupling of potential other energy
harvesting methods like RF energy harvesting and validating
the sensing functionality, it will be crucial to use green,
degradable materials and circuits, especially when larger
amounts of artificial materials need to be installed on plants.
Using green materials that controllably degrade should be a
key design parameter of such a technology. On-going developments
in biodegradable electronics, triboelectric materials,
and energy harvesters support the chance to realize fully sustainable
systems. Current bottlenecks like the installation
of many (e.g., thousands) of leaves on trees including their
wiring should be avoided by improving the mechanics, the
materials, the contact area, the harvesting and sensing circuits
in a way that a few leaves (e.g., less than 10) can power an application
such as lighting LEDs or sensing nodes.
Conclusions
Energy conversion by plant tissues has a high potential to
derive organic and biohybrid energy harvesters that are sustainable
and require less artificial materials. Such plant-hybrid
energy harvesters can harvest environmental kinetic energy
using the triboelectric effect (e.g., wind) or even RF radiation.
Yet, understanding the mechanisms behind energy harvesters
and parameters like the power output, efficiency, and
their resulting performance requires detailed measurements
adapted to the living organisms. This can lead to increasing
performances and realizing applications powered by plants
that convert energy in their environment into electricity. Progress
in artificial triboelectric generators and nanogenerators
will also support those based on living plants, and many
methods used to characterize such phenomena on artificial
materials can be applied when including adaptations and considerations
for measuring biological tissue, also considering
factors like reproducibility and long-livability and seasonal
changes. Yet plants have still a great advantage over artificial
technologies that are combined with them which is the capability
to self-repair and renew in a sustainable manner. In fact,
green materials, sustainability, and controlled biodegradation
should be key design parameters of such energy harvesting
technologies.
References
[1] F. Meder et al., " Energy conversion at the cuticle of living plants, "
Adv. Funct. Mater., vol. 28, p. 1806689, 2018.
[2] Y. Jie et al., " Natural leaf made triboelectric nanogenerator for
harvesting environmental mechanical energy, " Adv. Energy
Mater., vol. 8, p. 1703133, 2018.
[3] F. Meder, M. Thielen, A. Mondini, T. Speck, and B. Mazzolai,
" Living plant-hybrid generators for multidirectional wind energy
conversion, " Energy Technol., vol. 8, no. 7, p. 2000236, 2020.
[4] D. W. Kim, S. Kim, and U. Jeong, " Lipids: source of static
electricity of regenerative natural substances and nondestructive
energy harvesting, " Adv. Mater., vol. 30, no. 52, p. 1804949, 2018.
[5] F. Meder, A. Mondini, F. Visentin, G. Zini, M. Crepaldi, and B.
Mazzolai, " Multisource energy conversion in plants with soft
epicuticular coatings, " Energy Environ. Sci., vol. 15, no. 6, pp.
2545-2556, 2022.
[6] A. G. Volkov, Plant Electrophysiology-Theory and Methods. Berlin,
Germany: Springer, 2006.
[7] J. Lowell and A. C. Rose-Innes, " Contact electrification, " Adv.
Phys., vol. 296, no. 6, pp. 947-1023, 1980.
[8] F. Meder, M. Thielen, G. A. Naselli, S. Taccola, T. Speck, and B.
Mazzolai, " Biohybrid wind energy generators based on living
plants, " Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems, pp. 234-244, 2020.
[9] H. Zhang and L. Quan, " Theoretical prediction and
optimization approach to triboelectric nanogenerator, " Ch. 5 in
Electrostatic Discharge - From Electrical breakdown in Micro-gaps
to Nano-generators, L. Q. E.-S. H. Voldman, Ed. Rijeka, Croatia:
IntechOpen, 2019.
[10] H. T. Baytekin, A. Z. Patashinski, M. Branicki, B. Baytekin, S. Soh,
and B. A. Grzybowski, " The mosaic of surface charge in contact
electrification, " Science, vol. 333, pp. 308-312, 2011.
Fabian Meder (IEEE member, fabian.meder@iit.it) is an engineer
for bio- and nanotechnology and holds a Ph.D. degree in
materials science. He has over 14 years of experience in the research
of the interface between materials and biological matter.
In the last five years, he has been developing plant-hybrid and
bioinspired systems for energy conversion, energy harvesting,
and bioinspired robotics at the Bioinspired Soft Robotics Laboratory
of the Italian Institute of Technology in Genova, Italy.
He developed methods, instrumentations, and protocols to analyze
electrical phenomena and energy conversion in plants.
Alessio Mondini (alessio.mondini@iit.it) is an electronics engineer.
He works in the bio- and soft robotics fields and, in
particular, in the realization of mechatronic systems, low level
control, data acquisition systems, and microcontroller-based
solutions. He is currently involved in the realization and control
of energy harvesting devices and robots inspired by plants
and in the design and control of soft robots.
Barbara Mazzolai (IEEE member, barbara.mazzolai@iit.it) is
Associate Director for Robotics and Director of the Bioinspired
Soft Robotics Laboratory at the Italian Institute of Technology
(ITT) in Genova, Italy. From February 2011 to March 2021, she
was the Director of the IIT Center for Micro-BioRobotics. Her
research activities are in the areas of biologically-inspired robotics
and soft robotics. In this context, she is the pioneer of the
fields of plant-inspired robots and growing robots.
December 2022
IEEE Instrumentation & Measurement Magazine
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