Sunflowers inspire light-tracking solar material

Researchers combined nanomaterials and heat-responsive polymers to make a material that can bend to track a beam of light. ↓↓More info and references below↓↓

Many plants can orient themselves toward a light source to maximize the energy they absorb. Young sunflowers, for example, tilt their heads to follow the sun throughout the day, a result of their stems growing asymmetrically. Now, researchers have designed a material to mimic that behavior. The researchers made small cylinders from a combination of light-absorbing nanoparticles and a thermoresponsive polymer that contracts when heated. They call the cylinders SunBOTs. When light shines on a SunBOT from an angle, the side facing the light source absorbs light, heats up, and contracts, bending the cylinder toward the light beam. The researchers tested an array of the cylinders in a device that collects sunlight to generate steam, and they estimate that SunBOT-based systems could harvest up to twice as much energy as flat sunlight-absorbing surfaces.

References:

Artificial phototropism for omnidirectional tracking and harvesting of light | Nature Nanotechnology

Circadian regulation of sunflower heliotropism, floral orientation, and pollinator visits | Science

Music:
“Autumn” by Kevin Graham

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