title: Plant nanobionic materials with a giant temperature response mediated by pectin-Ca2+.
abstract: Conventional approaches to create biomaterials rely on reverse engineering of biological structures, on biomimicking, and on bioinspiration. Plant nanobionics is a recent approach to engineer new materials combining plant organelles with synthetic nanoparticles to enhance, for example, photosynthesis. Biological structures often outperform man-made materials. For example, higher plants sense temperature changes with high responsivity. However, these properties do not persist after cell death. Here, we permanently stabilize the temperature response of isolated plant cells adding carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Interconnecting cells, we create materials with an effective temperature coefficient of electrical resistance (TCR) of -1,730% K(-1), ∼2 orders of magnitude higher than the best available sensors. This extreme temperature response is due to metal ions contained in the egg-box structure of the pectin backbone, lodged between cellulose microfibrils. The presence of a network of CNTs stabilizes the response of cells at high temperatures without decreasing the activation energy of the material. CNTs also increase the background conductivity, making these materials suitable elements for thermal and distance sensors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), 8092 Zurich, CH, Switzerland;
authors.forename: Raffaele
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Di Giacomo
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), 8092 Zurich, CH, Switzerland; Division of Engineering and Applied Science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125; and daraio@ethz.ch.
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Daraio
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, Division of Biomedicine, University of Salerno, 84084 Fisciano, Italy.
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Maresca
mesh_terms: D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D002118:Calcium / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D060846:Cell Engineering / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D002460:Cell Line; D002473:Cell Wall / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D006358:Hot Temperature; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D010368:Pectins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D059828:Plant Cells / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D010368:Pectins; D002118:Calcium
keywords: biomaterials; carbon nanotubes; iontronics; plant nanobionics; temperature sensor
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