Practical circuits with Physarum Wires

Fungal electronics

Fungal electronics is a family of living electronic devices made of mycelium bound composites or pure mycelium. Fungal electronic devices are capable of changing their impedance and generating spikes of electrical potential in response to external control parameters. Fungal electronics can be embedded into fungal materials and wearables or used as stand alone sensing and computing devices.

Electrical Resistive Spiking of Fungi

We study long-term electrical resistance dynamics in mycelium and fruit bodies of oyster fungi P. ostreatus. A nearly homogeneous sheet of mycelium on the surface of a growth substrate exhibits trains of resistance spikes. The average width of spikes is c. 23[Formula: see text]min and the average amplitude is c. 1[Formula: see text]k[Formula: see text]. The distance between neighboring spikes in a train of spikes is c. 30[Formula: see text]min. Typically, there are 4–6 spikes in a train of spikes. Two types of electrical resistance spikes trains are found in fruit bodies: low frequency and high amplitude (28[Formula: see text]min spike width, 1.6[Formula: see text]k[Formula: see text] amplitude, 57[Formula: see text]min distance between spikes) and high frequency and low amplitude (10[Formula: see text]min width, 0.6[Formula: see text]k[Formula: see text] amplitude, 44[Formula: see text]min distance between spikes). The findings could be applied in monitoring of physiological states of fungi and future development of living electronic devices and sensors.

Electrical characterization of leaf-based wires & supercapacitors

Electronic waste (e-waste) is a growing problem in the world due to increasing consumption and subsequent discarding of electronic devices. One of the ways to address this problem is to develop electronics made up of biodegradable components. Leaves are readily available, biodegradable and can be found with various types of architecture of the vascular conduits within. We investigated the possibility of developing electronic components based on leaves of a monocotyledon plant by introducing a conducting polymer inside the vascular conduits. We were able to construct conducting wires in those conduits extending to centimeters in length within a leaf. Furthermore, we were able to demonstrate the construction of a supercapacitor within a leaf by using the conducting conduits as electrodes. These results suggest the possibility of constructing embedded electronic components within leaves which may provide an alternative towards the development of biodegradable electronics.

Plant leaves were used to construct conducting channels and supercapacitors within.