Extraction of electric energy from living plant cells for the first time

Scientists at Stanford University have successfully made electricity from algae cells for the first time, the US Science Daily reported They use the photosynthesis of seaweed plants to convert sunlight into chemical energy, which will be the first step in the production of high-energy bioelectricity, a high-energy environmental protection technology that can avoid the generation of carbon dioxide "We believe this is the first time we've extracted electricity from living plant cells," said won young Ryu, who led the study at Stanford University The study was published in the March issue of the Journal of nanotechnology Yu Wenyuan led a research team to develop a unique super sharp gold nano electrode, which will be used to puncture the cells entering the seaweed The researchers slightly pricked the algal cell membrane with the gold nanoelectrode, and kept the cell in a living state The gold nanoelectrode absorbed electrons from the cells undergoing photosynthesis, and finally the researchers generated a weak current in the experiment "We are still in the stage of scientific research, and we can get current from a single photosynthetic plant cell," Yu said Through photosynthesis, plants can convert light energy into chemical energy, which is stored in sugary compounds This process takes place in chloroplasts of plants The "cell power station" that makes sugary compounds turns leaves and algae green In chloroplasts, water can split into oxygen, electrons and protons Sunlight passes through the chloroplast, stimulating electrons to be in a high-energy state, which are then captured by proteins Electrons are accumulated in sugary compounds through a series of protein processing In this experiment, the researchers intercepted the high-energy electrons just activated by sunlight They pricked the gold nanoelectrode into the chloroplast of algae cells, sucked the high-energy electrons and produced a weak current The researchers said carbon dioxide would not be released into the atmosphere during the whole process, and only protons and oxygen were produced as byproducts Yu stressed that this is the cleanest and most environmentally friendly way to produce electricity, but the problem is how to extract such energy resources more economically and effectively.