Real-Time Monitoring of Volatile Organic Compound-Mediated Plant Intercommunication Using Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Nanosensor

Plants communicate through volatile organic compounds (VOCs), but real-time monitoring of VOCs for plant intercommunication is not practically possible yet. A nanobionic VOC sensor plant is created to study VOC-mediated plant intercommunication by incorporating surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) nanosensors into a living plant. This sensor allows real-time monitoring of VOC with a sensitivity down to the parts per trillion level. A quantitative VOC diffusion model in plants is proposed to describe this extreme sensitivity. The sensor plant is paired with a customized portable Raman device, demonstrating its ability to detect multiple VOCs on-field. The sensor demonstrated that plants collect VOCs emitted from neighboring plants and hazardous volatile chemicals in the air at a certain distance. As a feasibility study, this nanobionic VOC sensor plant successfully monitored the early stages of fungal infection in strawberry fruits. This result suggests that interfacing nanosensors with plants offers an innovative approach to studying interplant communication and can be used as a compelling tool for monitoring VOC occurrence.