Flexible Boron-Doped Diamond (BDD) Electrodes for Plant Monitoring.

Shoko Tago,Seitaro Suzuki,Mio Hayashi,Akira Fujishima,Tsuyoshi Ochiai,Takeshi Kondo

doi:10.3390/s17071638

Abstract

Detecting the bio-potential changes of plants would be useful for monitoring their growth and health in the field. A sensitive plant monitoring system with flexible boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrodes prepared from BDD powder and resin (Nafion or Vylon-KE1830) was investigated. The properties of the electrodes were compared with those of small BDD plate-type electrodes by monitoring the bioelectric potentials of potted Aloe and hybrid species in the genus Opuntia. While flexible BDD electrodes have wide potential windows, their cyclic voltammograms are different from those of the BDD plate. Further, the potential gap between a pair of electrodes attached to the plants changes as the plants are stimulated artificially with a finger touch, suggesting that the bioelectric potentials in the plant also changed, manifesting as changes in the potential gap between the electrodes. The BDD electrodes were assessed for their response reproducibility to a finger stimulus for 30 days. It was concluded that the plant monitoring system worked well with flexible BDD electrodes. Further, the electrodes were stable, and as reliable as the BDD plate electrodes in this study. Thus, a flexible and inexpensive BDD electrode system was successfully fabricated for monitoring the bioelectric potential changes in plants.

Highlights

Plants are capable of detecting environmental factors such as atmospheric temperature, humidity, and light intensity
The potential window of the boron-doped diamond (BDD)/Nafion film was slightly wider than that of the other electrodes, and the potential changes were less than or equal to −0.2 V, there were no obvious peaks in the potential range of −0.2 to
A plant monitoring system based on the detection of bioelectric potential with

Summary

Introduction

Plants are capable of detecting environmental factors such as atmospheric temperature, humidity, and light intensity. We reported a highly sensitive measurement system involving boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrodes for plant monitoring [7,8]. In the current study, the application of flexible and low cost BDD electrodes prepared using BDD powder and resins is described for long-term plant monitoring. We have already reported the use of flexible BDD electrodes prepared using BDD powder and Nafion for disinfecting root canals in dental treatment [14]. The BDD/Nafion ink was thought to be suitable for the fabrication of flexible. Kondo et al, reported the use of BDD/Vylon ink for preparing screen-printed diamond electrodes based on BDD powder and Vylon [15]. BDD/Nafion and BDD/Vylon inks for fabricating BDD film and needle electrodes. The electrodes have been characterized via cyclic voltammetry and attached to a plant to assess their potential for long-term use

Experimental Section

Results and Discussion

Cyclic

Conclusions