Electrical Performance of Zn–Cu Plant-Based Cells in Aloe Vera: Leaf-Stem Comparison with Series and Parallel Scaling
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Abstract
Plant tissue may act as a weak electrochemical battery when electrodes of various metals are introduced. However, leaf-based systems typically experience local damage and drying around the insertion site, raising questions regarding long-term usage. A single Aloe vera plant was treated with a Zn-Cu electrode pair on a mature leaf and stem. Based on our accepted conference study's optimum leaf orientation, leaf measurements were taken horizontally along the leaf's length direction. In stem testing, horizontal positioning yielded greater current and lower effective resistance than vertical placement. The leaf and stem generated equivalent open-circuit voltages of 0.958 V and 0.943 V and short-circuit currents of 0.15 mA and 0.12 mA in a horizontal arrangement. Scaling was evaluated by combining one horizontal leaf cell and one horizontal stem cell. The obtained voltage from the series connection was 1.883 V, while the obtained current was 0.25 mA from the parallel connection. An effective resistance calculation and a simple equivalent-source model were used to verify the expected circuit behaviour. After seven days, the leaf insertion site exhibited degradation, whereas the stem site remained reasonably intact, indicating that stem implantation may retain a similar yield with enhanced durability for longer-term harvesting.
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