posted on 2024-03-05, 16:04authored byDaniela Parker, Abdul Manan Dar, Adam Armada-Moreira, Iwona Bernacka Wojcik, Rajat Rai, Daniele Mantione, Eleni Stavrinidou
Biohybrid systems based on plants integrate plant structures
and
processes into technological components targeting more sustainable
solutions. Plants’ biocatalytic machinery, for example, has
been leveraged for the organization of electronic materials directly
in the vasculature and roots of living plants, resulting in biohybrid
electrochemical devices. Among other applications, energy storage
devices were demonstrated where the charge storage electrodes were
seamlessly integrated into the plant tissue. However, the capacitance
and the voltage output of a single biohybrid supercapacitor are limited.
Here, we developed biohybrid circuits based on functionalized conducting
roots, extending the performance of plant based biohybrid energy storage
systems. We show that root-supercapacitors can be combined in series
and in parallel configuration, achieving up to 1.5 V voltage output
or up to 11 mF capacitance, respectively. We further demonstrate that
the supercapacitors circuit can be charged with an organic photovoltaic
cell, and that the stored charge can be used to power an electrochromic
display or a bioelectronic device. Furthermore, the functionalized
roots degrade in composting similarly to native roots. The proof-of-concept
demonstrations illustrate the potential of this technology to achieve
more sustainable solutions for powering low consumption devices such
as bioelectronics for agriculture or IoT applications.