Although plants can provide food, oxygen, and decoration, they aren’t frequently regarded as reliable sources of electricity. However, scientists can produce energy as a component of a “green,” biological solar cell by gathering electrons that are naturally carried through plant cells. For the first time, researchers reported in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces have utilized a succulent plant to build a living, photosynthesis-powered “bio-solar cell.”
The natural, biological processes that take place in all living cells—from bacteria and fungi to plants and animals—involve the movement of electrons. However, the cells can really produce electricity that can be used externally, provided electrodes are present. In the past, researchers have used bacteria to make fuel cells, but the germs required regular feeding. Instead, scientists have started using photosynthesis to create current, notably Noam Adir’s team. Light drives a flow of water’s electrons during this process, which eventually produces oxygen and sugar. This implies that, like a solar cell, living photosynthetic cells continuously produce an electron flow that can be drawn away as a “photocurrent” and utilized to power an external circuit.
Some plants have thick cuticles to preserve water and nutrients inside their leaves, such as the succulents found in arid areas. As the electrolyte solution of an electrochemical cell, Yaniv Shlosberg, Gadi Schuster, and Adir intended to explore for the first time if photosynthesis in succulents might produce energy for living solar cells.
Corpuscularia lehmannii, often known as the “ice plant,” is a succulent that was used by the researchers to produce a live solar cell. They0.28 volts. tested one of the plant’s leaves by inserting an and an anode and platinum cathode, and they discovered that it had a voltage of 0.28V. It could produce current for more than a day when it was attached to a circuit and could achieve photocurrent densities of up to 20 A/cm2. These figures indicate just one leaf, even though they are lower than those of an ordinary alkaline battery. Numerous leaves connected in series may raise the voltage, according to earlier investigations on analogous organic devices. The live solar cell was deliberately created by the team so that protons in the internal leaf solution might combine at the cathode to make hydrogen gas, which could then be collected and used for other purposes. According to the researchers, their approach could facilitate the creation of multipurpose, sustainable green energy solutions in the future.
The authors thank the Technion’s Hydrogen Technologies Research Laboratory as well as financing from the Grand Technion Energy Program’s (“Nevet”) grant and the Technion VPR Berman Grant for Energy Research (HTRL).
