Synthesis of Conductive Polymers in Living Plants Using an Enzyme-Assisted Polymerization Strategy for Sensing and Energy Storage

Living plants provide sustainable and adaptive systems, and enabling them with in vivo electroactivity could open promising avenues for green sensing and energy technologies. However, integrating conductive polymers into living tissues without harming the viability remains challenging. Here, we develop a living rose-based biohybrid system using an enzyme-assisted in vivo polymerization strategy to endow plants with electroactive functions. In the system, pyrrole monomers are transported throughout the plant and polymerized in situ on tissue surfaces, producing electroactive Rose/PPy stems that combine the properties of conductive polymers with living tissues. The system enables sensitive detection of plant hormones, including indole-3-acetic acid (IAA, 1.5 μM-100 μM) and salicylic acid (SA, 0.05 μM-3 μM), via differential pulse voltammetry. Rose/PPy also functions as a supercapacitor electrode, exhibiting a maximum capacitance of 1035 μF at 3 μA with 81% retention over 10,000 cycles, and a symmetric two-electrode device shows 49.7 μF at 3.5 μA with 85% retention over 5500 cycles. These results demonstrate the potential of Rose/PPy for both biosensing and energy storage. This work establishes a general strategy for constructing electroactive plant-based biohybrids, expands the applications of natural biomass in multifunctional materials, and provides insights into the seamless integration of electronics with living systems.