The Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), which is spread across several sites in Italy, with each site focusing on specific technologies, is presenting its own “bionic leaf” project. Let's talk more specifically about the Genoa headquarters, where the first prototype of this object, which is part of the Bio-Robotics branch, is being developed. It is precisely the interaction between living organisms and artificial technologies that represents one of the most fascinating areas of this branch, and this project concerns a leaf capable of generating energy from wind and raindrops. rain when integrated into plants. In short: an artificial leaf that makes us wonder “how far will technology go in the future?”
Composition and application of the bionic sheet
The biosheet in question consists of a layer of silicon elastomer (a family of synthetic elastomers, with silicon and oxygen atoms instead of carbon atoms) on the underside, which generates and collects static charges generated by the movement of natural leaves.
On the top side is a layer of fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP), also known as Teflon, which is clearly carcinogenic, but like all experimental phases of a project, it is necessary to understand how it works in order to optimize and eliminate its presence.
Fabian Meder, a postgraduate student at IIT in soft robotics and biomimicry, explains that
“As leaves move in the wind, the two surfaces touch and separate, creating static charges on the leaf cuticle and on our device. These charges are induced in the plant's internal cellular tissue, generating a current which we can collect via an electrode inserted into plant tissue.”
Concretely, the smart sheet should for now be able to provide enough energy to power an LED lamp, but possible applications could concern various sectors, such as agriculture and environmental monitoring, as hypothetical additional step in the field of renewable energies.
The first test was carried out by inserting “the device” between the leaves of a living oleander (belonging to the shrub family). The information collected showed that individual water drops generate energy peaks of more than 40 volts and 15 microamps, which is enough to directly power 11 LED lamps. The same structure is capable of harvesting wind energy through the oscillations of the leaves.
The researchers then noted that the smart leaf is capable of generating more power than other known technologies that run primarily on wind power. The researchers themselves are working on filing a patent for the device in order to better understand possible market scenarios and, in the not too distant future, to use this bionic sheet in commonly used areas as mentioned at the beginning, e.g. in agriculture, thus opening new scenarios that could concern “smart agriculture” and the world of IoT.