Flexible Boron-Doped Diamond (BDD) Electrodes for Plant Monitoring
Shoko Tago,
Tsuyoshi Ochiai,
Seitaro Suzuki,
Mio Hayashi,
Takeshi Kondo,
Akira Fujishima
Affiliations
Shoko Tago
Photocatalyst Group, Research and Development Department, Local Independent Administrative Agency Kanagawa Institute of industrial Science and TEChnology (KISTEC), 407 East Wing, Innovation Center Building, KSP, 3-2-1 Sakado, Takatsu-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa 213-0012, Japan
Tsuyoshi Ochiai
Photocatalyst Group, Research and Development Department, Local Independent Administrative Agency Kanagawa Institute of industrial Science and TEChnology (KISTEC), 407 East Wing, Innovation Center Building, KSP, 3-2-1 Sakado, Takatsu-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa 213-0012, Japan
Seitaro Suzuki
Photocatalyst Group, Research and Development Department, Local Independent Administrative Agency Kanagawa Institute of industrial Science and TEChnology (KISTEC), 407 East Wing, Innovation Center Building, KSP, 3-2-1 Sakado, Takatsu-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa 213-0012, Japan
Mio Hayashi
Photocatalyst Group, Research and Development Department, Local Independent Administrative Agency Kanagawa Institute of industrial Science and TEChnology (KISTEC), 407 East Wing, Innovation Center Building, KSP, 3-2-1 Sakado, Takatsu-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa 213-0012, Japan
Takeshi Kondo
Photocatalysis International Research Centre, Tokyo University of Science, 2641 Yamazaki, Noda, Chiba 278-8510, Japan
Akira Fujishima
Photocatalyst Group, Research and Development Department, Local Independent Administrative Agency Kanagawa Institute of industrial Science and TEChnology (KISTEC), 407 East Wing, Innovation Center Building, KSP, 3-2-1 Sakado, Takatsu-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa 213-0012, Japan
Detecting the bio-potential changes of plants would be useful for monitoring their growth and health in the field. A sensitive plant monitoring system with flexible boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrodes prepared from BDD powder and resin (Nafion or Vylon-KE1830) was investigated. The properties of the electrodes were compared with those of small BDD plate-type electrodes by monitoring the bioelectric potentials of potted Aloe and hybrid species in the genus Opuntia. While flexible BDD electrodes have wide potential windows, their cyclic voltammograms are different from those of the BDD plate. Further, the potential gap between a pair of electrodes attached to the plants changes as the plants are stimulated artificially with a finger touch, suggesting that the bioelectric potentials in the plant also changed, manifesting as changes in the potential gap between the electrodes. The BDD electrodes were assessed for their response reproducibility to a finger stimulus for 30 days. It was concluded that the plant monitoring system worked well with flexible BDD electrodes. Further, the electrodes were stable, and as reliable as the BDD plate electrodes in this study. Thus, a flexible and inexpensive BDD electrode system was successfully fabricated for monitoring the bioelectric potential changes in plants.
