The monitoring of plant physiology and ecology: From materials to flexible devices

Abstract

Plant health monitoring has gotten increasing concerns in recent years. Flexible devices offer a more effective mean of monitoring plants. In order to obtain plant information, the relevant physiological and ecological parameters that need to be concerned are summarized in this review. The aim is to provide a more comprehensive and explorable perspective. The research results and progress of flexible devices for plant monitoring in recent years are presented. This paper focuses on conductive materials for flexible device fabrication, including carbon-based materials (e.g. carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphene), metallic materials (e.g. gold, silver), conductive polymer materials (e.g. polypyrrole, polythiophene), composite materials, biomass materials and hydrogel materials. In the end, we discuss the challenges and future potential of flexible devices for plant sensing at this stage. It is hoped that this will provide further inspiration for research and development of flexible sensing devices in the plant sector.