Glow-in-the-dark houseplants shine in rainbow of colours

Summary

University students might soon have something other than black-light posters to brighten their dorm rooms. Researchers have created glow-in-the-dark plants by injecting succulents with materials similar to those that make the posters light up. The fleshy plants shine as brightly as a night light, and can be made to do so in a wide variety of colours — a first for glowing houseplants, according to the team.Glow way! Bioluminescent houseplant hits US market for first timeThe researchers, led by Xuejie Zhang, a materials scientist at the South China Agricultural University in Guangzhou, describe today how they produced the plants in the journal Matter1. They have applied for a patent on the technology, which they hope will lead to decorative installations and living lighting.The idea of making glowing plants has captivated scientists since the late 1980s, when researchers made the first bioluminescent plant2 by inserting a gene from a firefly (Photinus pyralis) into a type of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum). This work laid the foundation for the first genetically engineered luminescent houseplant to come on the market in the United States, last year. The biotechnology firm Light Bio in Sun Valley, Idaho, sells the petunia (Petunia hybrida), which glows a very faint green thanks to genes from a light-emitting mushroom.Leafy greens … and blues and redsUnlike the petunia, which emits light through chemical reactions in its cells, the succulent glows because of materials injected into its leaves. These materials — phosphor particles made of strontium and aluminium dosed with other metals — absorb energy from light at one wavelength, store some of that energy and then slowly re-emit it at a different wavelength for several hours. For instance, one material the scientists injected into their succulents absorbs ultraviolet and blue light, and re-emits it as green light.This type of ‘afterglow’ phosphor is used in glow-in-the-dark toys and paints, and as an imaging tracer for labo...