Research carried out by scientists at Iowa State University (USA) has shown that it is possible to obtain electrical energy by imitating plants. In this case, the researchers have designed an artificial tree that emulates the poplar, whose leaves produce electricity when they receive the impulse or the sway of the wind.
Biomimetics, the science that defines the use of artificial devices or structures to imitate natural ones, is the key to this project together with the piezoelectric effect.
On the one hand, biomimicry has made possible the design of this artificial tree -which although the prototype is somewhat crude and unrealistic, it is likely that in the future it could be much more similar to real trees- and, on the other, the production of electricity It is due to artificial leaves – made of piezoelectric crystals – that generate electricity from wind energy.
How does the artificial tree work?
Inside the stems of the artificial leaves made by the researchers are small plastic sheets that release an electrical charge when moved through the air , since their mechanical tension causes their mass to acquire electrical polarization, which we call piezoelectricity. And it is that the flexible piezoelectric sheets or leaves of this tree oscillate in a regular pattern, which makes them very efficient when generating electricity.
In the future, both smaller machines that perform the same function and more realistic trees similar to natural ones will be able to be manufactured, which in turn are providing us with electrical energy thanks to wind energy as if they were windmills of nature.
The work has been published in the magazine PloS One.
