Carbon nanotubes that infiltrate leaves can boost photosynthetic activity and even turn plants into chemical sensors.

Michael Strano and his colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge used near-infrared microscopes to track single-walled carbon nanotubes in the leaves of Arabidopsis plants (pictured) and in extracted chloroplasts, the photosynthesizing organelle in plants. They found that the nanotubes integrate themselves into the chloroplasts' outer envelope. The semiconducting carbon nanotubes tripled photosynthetic activity in extracted chloroplasts compared with those without nanoparticles, by enhancing electron transport.

Credit: Bryce Vickmark

In addition, the authors showed that leaves containing fluorescent carbon nanotubes designed to stop glowing in the presence of the pollutant nitric oxide also stopped fluorescing when exposed to the pollutant. Carbon nanotubes could allow plants to detect other chemicals such as pesticides, the researchers say.

Nature Mater. http://doi.org/rxc (2014)