detect nitroaromatics tagged posts

Nitroaromatic detection and infrared communication in wild-type plants via plant nanobionics.

After sensing dangerous chemicals, the carbon-nanotube-enhanced plants send an alert. Spinach is no longer just a superfood: By embedding leaves with CNTs, MIT engineers have transformed spinach plants into sensors that can detect explosives and wirelessly relay that information to a handheld device similar to a smartphone. This is one of the first demonstrations of engineering electronic systems into plants, an approach that the researchers call “plant nanobionics.”

“The goal of plant nanobionics is to introduce nanoparticles into the plant to give it non-native functions,” says Prof. Michael Strano, Chemical Engineering, MIT...