Scientists in China have created rainbow, glow-in-the-dark succulents by injecting colorful “afterglow” particles into the leaves that absorb, and then gradually release, light.
The luminescent succulents shone for up to two hours, outperforming similar, material-engineered plants, according to a new study. The invention paves the way for sustainable, plant-based lighting to illuminate outdoor and indoor spaces, researchers said.
“Imagine glowing trees replacing streetlights,” study lead author Shuting Liu, a researcher at South China Agricultural University, said in a statement. “The particles diffused in just seconds, and the entire succulent leaf glowed.”
Researchers have made glow-in-the-dark plants before, both with genetic engineering and material engineering. Genetic engineering approaches harness bioluminescent genes that already exist in certain plants, such as phytoplankton — but these genes have a limited, mostly green, color range, according to the study. Material engineering techniques involve injecting light-emitting particles into plant leaves to make them glow, but these methods have so far only generated dim light.
For strong luminescence, light-emitting particles have to be small enough to diffuse through a plant’s tissues, but also big enough to emit a visible glow. Previous experiments using nanoparticles derived from firefly luciferase, the enzyme that creates bioluminescence in fireflies, produced only a faint glow that dropped sharply after 30 minutes.
For the new study, Liu and her colleagues used light-emitting phosphor particles that were roughly the width of a human red blood cell (6 to 8 micrometers). The micron-sized particles were large enough to produce a strong glow while traveling through the plants freely, Liu said. “Smaller, nano-sized particles move easily within the plant but are dimmer,” she said.
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The researchers published their findings Wednesday (Aug. 27) in the journal Matter.
Micron-sized particles worked for succulents but not for other plants tested in the study, including bok choy (Brassica rapa chinensis) and golden pothos (Epipremnum aureum). The researchers used Echeveria “Mebina” succulents, which have blue-green leaves with red tips. Unlike bok choy and golden pothos, these succulents have relatively large gaps…
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