Towards Increased Crop Yields with Molecular Heater Technology

Abstract Food security is fast becoming one of the most pressing issues of the 21 st century. With increasing climate instability, crop growth is now routinely affected by adverse weather patterns, which can result in reduced crop yields and even crop death. We are developing an environmentally responsible molecular heater to help boost plant growth, to expand the geographic regions suitable for such growth and to protect plants against cold weather. Our molecular heater, sinapic diacid (SDA, 2-(4-hydroxy-3,5-dimethoxybenzylidene)malonic acid), acts as a light-to-heat agent, converting solar energy into heat energy delivered to the plant. We have designed and optimised a sustainable chemical synthesis of SDA, characterised its photophysical properties using a combination of steady-state and ultrafast laser spectroscopy techniques and complementary computational studies, assessed its light-to-heat energy transfer performance to plant leaves in vivo , and explored key environmental and toxicological endpoints through in silico studies. Our spot-test results demonstrate that adsorbed SDA efficiently converts solar energy to heat energy, increasing the local plant leaf temperature by ~ 0.2 °C after sustained irradiation, with no alerts to environmental fate and human toxicity, and with impressive resilience to prolonged solar irradiation. Our studies reveal the hitherto untapped potential of molecular heaters such as SDA for helping to boost plant growth and protect plants against climate instability, with transformative potential towards food security.