Fake Sunflowers created that bend towards sunlight to provide sufficient solar energy

Scientists have created 'fake sunflowers' to replicate the behavior exhibited in Phototropism, a growing phenomenon in direct response to a light stimulus and is mostly found in plants. The researchers from the University of California and Arizona state university wanted to recreate the same phenomena by using synthetic material that automatically followed a source of light by bending towards it with no external factors helping the synthetic material to bend.

An effort to generate sufficient solar energy

According to reports, the scientists stated that they had achieved their objective by creating a polymer material that bent towards a light source on its own. They managed to achieve the task by bringing together a photo-responsive nanomaterial and a thermo-responsive material. 

According to the study, the photo-responsive material absorbed light and converted it to heat whereas the thermo-responsive material contracted when it was exposed to heat and that led team working on the project to mould the material in the shape of a flower stem and exposed it to a ray of light from different angles.

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The scientists stated that the flower stem pointed directly towards the light source because the light was absorbed by the synthetic stem at a particular angle and got converted to heat which in turn forced the material facing the light to contract and this resulted in the stem bending towards the source of light. The scientists also said that the synthetic flower stem continued to bend till a particular angle where it's top partially covered the light source making its position fixed at that particular place.

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The group then placed a very small solar panel on the stem and this study may help them to understand and increase the efficiency of solar panels. The scientists named the system 'SunBot'.

Phototropism

Phototropism is a phenomenon that showcases the growth of an organism in response to a light stimulus. This phenomenon is most observed in plants but can be in other organisms such as fungi. The cells on a plant that are the farthest away from the light source, have a chemical called auxin when phototropism takes place.

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(With inputs from agencies)