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Increasing greenhouse production by spectral-shifting and unidirectional light-extracting photonics

Nature Food volume 2, pages 434–441 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Improving photosynthesis and light capture increases crop yield and paves a sustainable way to meet the growing global food demand. Here we introduce a spectral-shifting microphotonic thin film as a greenhouse envelope that can be scalably manufactured for augmented photosynthesis. By breaking the intrinsic propagation symmetry of light, the photonic microstructures can extract 89% of the internally generated light and deliver most of that in one direction towards photosynthetic organisms. The microphotonic film augments lettuce production by more than 20% in both indoor facilities with electric lighting and in a greenhouse with natural sunlight, offering the possibility of increasing crop production efficiency in controlled environments.

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Fig. 1: Increasing photosynthesis with a spectral-shifting and unidirectional light-extracting film.
Fig. 2: Productivity of indoor-grown lettuce plants.
Fig. 3: Photosynthetic CO2 assimilation of a whole lettuce plant in a closed chamber.
Fig. 4: Productivity of ‘Buttercrunch’ lettuce in a greenhouse with natural sunlight.

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Data availability

All presented data are available upon reasonable request from the authors. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation under grant number 6884 and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture under grant number 2017-07652. We thank M. Rhode and J. Uhrich for assisting with precision machining of the replica moulds; J. Chalmers, K. Yang, Y. Zhai and I. Berman for assisting with blade coating; and N. DuRussel for providing greenhouse technical assistance. We are grateful to J. Klausner, A. Benard and M. Adeney for fruitful discussions about greenhouse technologies and agricultural practices.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Yujin Park

    Present address: College of Integrative Sciences and Arts, Arizona State University, Mesa, AZ, USA

  2. Ronggui Yang

    Present address: School of Energy and Power Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA

    Lihua Shen, Runnan Lou, Yuning Guo, Yinzi Xiao, David Rieder, Ronggui Yang & Xiaobo Yin

  2. Department of Horticulture, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    Yujin Park, Eric J. Stallknecht & Erik S. Runkle

  3. Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA

    Xiaobo Yin

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  1. Lihua Shen
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Contributions

X.Y. and R.Y. conceived the idea. X.Y. and L.S. designed the experiments. L.S. and R.L. conducted the structure design and developed the simulation methods. L.S. fabricated the films and performed the characterizations with assistance from Y.X., D.R. and R.L. L.S. built the setup and performed indoor growth of lettuce with assistance from R.L., Y.G. and Y.X. L.S., E.J.S., Y.P. and R.L. performed the experiments in the research greenhouse. X.Y., L.S. and E.S.R. analysed the data. X.Y. and L.S. drafted the manuscript with input from all authors. X.Y. guided the research.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiaobo Yin.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Peer review information Nature Food thanks Houcheng Liu, Francesco Orsini and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–30, Methods, Discussion and Tables 1–6.

Reporting Summary

Supplementary Video 1

Comparative growth video of ‘Buttercrunch’ lettuce

Supplementary Data 1

Growth Data Log-Greenhouse

Supplementary Data 2

Growth Data Log-Outdoor

Source data

Source Data Fig. 1

Source data of Fig. 1b,c,j,and k

Source Data Fig. 2

Source data of Fig. 2b-j

Source Data Fig. 3

Source data of Fig. 3

Source Data Fig. 4

Source data of Fig. 4

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Shen, L., Lou, R., Park, Y. et al. Increasing greenhouse production by spectral-shifting and unidirectional light-extracting photonics. Nat Food 2, 434–441 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00307-8

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