Nanotubes rev up photosynthesis

摘要

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.