Textile electrochemical biosensor for plant science and precision farming

In vivo integrated plant monitoring by biocompatible devices represents a key point for precision farming. Increasing effortsin research development have been done to preserve natural environment and increase crop yield, developing newmethodologies that allow the application of the "right treatment in the right place at the right time". Here a biomimetic textilebiosensor has been implemented in tomato plants, to monitor their ionic activity, during growth and development, directlyintegrated in plant tissues. The active channel of the biosensor is prepared using a textile fiber, directly incorporated in theplant stem and the device presents a textile Organic Electro Chemical Transistor architecture. The response of the sensors,calculated as modulation of channel current, together with the kinetic characteristic of the signal, have been monitored inseveral tomato plants for six weeks. Thus, the biological activity of several tomato plants has been constantly monitored, bymeasuring the concentrations of electrolytes in the plant lymph at different gate voltages. The devices detected cyclicalmodifications which match with the typical night/day alternation. An innovative data analysis system, that combines thequantitative response with kinetic characteristics of the signal, was introduced to improve sensitivity and increase thesignificance of the collected information. The data confirm the ability of the biosensor to monitor cyclic behavior ofbiochemical characteristics of tomato sap, controlling their fine modifications. The proposed biosensors did not alter theplant morphology even after six weeks of operations and thus resulted perfectly integrated within the plant tissues, thanksto the biomimetic structure of the natural textile fibers. The information on biochemistry of the plant sap can give an insightview on the plant conditions, and allow the optimization of their irrigation and nutrition. The combination of this novelbiological dependent transistor, which we call "bioristor", together with biochemical and statistical analysis represent an earlydetection of the plant physiological conditions that allow to optimize growth conditions and rapidly act for plant recovery incase of stress.G. Tarabella, et Al. J. of Mat. Chem. 22 (2012) 23830-23834.N. Coppedè, et Al. J. of Mat. Chem. B, 2 (2014) 5620-5626.E. Battista, et Al. Organic Electronics, 40 (2017) 51-57