Spinach can detect explosives with the aid of nanotechnology – W Radio

This is one of the first demonstrations of what the researchers called “plants nanobiónicas”, which apply systems of electronic engineering.

In the case of spinach, the experts of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have integrated carbon nanotubes so that they can detect explosives, according to a study published today by the journal Nature Materials.

“The goal of the nanobiónica plant is to introduce into a plant nanoparticles that confer capabilities that are not our own”, he explained, in a statement, the head of research and professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, Michael Strano.

The plants of spinach were designed to detect a chemical component called nitroaromatic, which is often used in the manufacture of land mines and other explosives.

So, when one of those chemical compounds that appears in the groundwater, the carbon nanotubes are inserted in the leaves of the spinach, and emit a fluorescent signal that can be read using an infrared camera, which can be linked to a small computer, similar to a telephone, which sends an e-mail to the user.

“a new demonstration of how we have to overcome the communication barrier plant/human,” said Strano, who believes that the power of the plants could be exploited to warn of the presence of contaminants or certain environmental conditions such as drought, that they feel very quickly

In the MIT was performed two years ago the first demonstration of nanobiónica plant with a project by Strano and a student of postdoctoral fellow Juan Pablo Giraldo.

Both used nanoparticles to increase the capacity of photosynthesis of the plants, making them so-in sensors to detect nitric oxide, one of the pollutants produced by combustion.

plants are “ideally suited” to monitor the environment as they absorb a lot of information around and are “very good” by analyzing chemical, since their roots form an extensive network in the soil sampled in the groundwater and transports it to its leaves, the expert pointed out.

carbon nanotubes manufactured by the MIT can be used as sensors to detect a wide range of molecules, and when the target molecule binds to a polymer wrapped around the nanotube it alters its fluorescence.

In this study, the researchers introduced sensors on the back of the spinach leaves to detect the nitroaromatic.

Strano indicated that this type of technology can be applied to any plant and can help the botanists to know more about the internal processes of the same, monitoring their health and enhancing the performance of the compounds synthesized by some plants that are used in medicine.