Dr Hrisheekesh Thachoth Chandran, TU Dresden, fabricating organic photodiodes and solar cells on leaf skeleton substrates; first functional devices on conductive leaf substrates.

Dr Hrisheekesh Thachoth Chandran, TU Dresden, fabricating organic photodiodes and solar cells on leaf skeleton substrates; first functional devices on conductive leaf substrates.

Leaf skeletons as components for sustainable optoelectronics — School of Science — TU Dresden

Leaf skeletons as components for sustainable optoelectronics

The Leaftronics technology developed at the Institute of Applied Physics (IAP) and the Dresden Integrated Centre for Applied Physics and Photonic Materials (IAPP) at TU Dresden is moving into its next stage: In Dr Hrisheekesh Thachoth Chandran’s new research project, functional organic photodiodes and solar cells are to be fabricated directly onto substrates made from leaf skeletons. The German Research Foundation (DFG) is funding the project ‘Sustainable Organic Optoelectronic Devices Based on Metalized Fractal Leaf Electrodes’ with a research grant (project number 588510220).

The growing volume of electronic waste calls for more sustainable solutions for the manufacture and disposal of electronic components. The Leaftronics technology developed at the IAP has proven to be extremely promising in this regard. It enables the finely branched leaf veins of a magnolia leaf to be transformed into transparent, electrically conductive structures.

In his new research project, ‘Sustainable organic optoelectronic components based on metallised fractal leaf electrodes’, Dr Hrisheekesh Thachoth Chandran at the IAP is now taking this a step further: he aims to use the leaf skeletons as the basis for complete optoelectronic components. To achieve this, the processes developed to date must be combined with the manufacturing steps for organic electronics. The metallised leaf skeleton must withstand the subsequent chemical and thermal processing steps whilst providing a sufficiently smooth surface for the deposition of the organic semiconductor layers. The leaf veins are to retain their function as transparent electrodes.

“Conventional thin-film optoelectronics is based on glass or plastic substrates and uses vapour-deposited indium tin oxide (ITO) as a transparent conductive contact: a layer whose production is energy-intensive, relies on a scarce element such as indium, and is difficult to recycle. Replacing it with gold leads to similar problems. Metallised leaf scaffolds, on the other hand, have been shown to achieve sheet resistances below 1 Ω

□ with broadband transmission of around 80 per cent, placing them in the same range as the transparent conductors they would replace; and this on a substrate that decomposes at the end of its service life,” explains Dr Hrisheekesh Thachoth Chandran.

This is where Dr Hrisheekesh Thachoth Chandran’s expertise in the development of organic photodiodes and photovoltaics comes into its own. The primary device targets are organic photodiodes and indoor photovoltaics; the latter of which is particularly relevant, since indoor light harvesting is aimed at low-power distributed sensing, an application area where disposable, non-recoverable electronics accumulates fastest. “If this proves successful, it would be the first time that functional thin-film electronic components have been produced on conductive leaf substrates, with the leaf’s veins themselves serving as electrodes,” concludes Chandran.

Dr Hrisheekesh Thachoth Chandran Institute of Applied Physics (IAP) Dresden Integrated Center for Applied Physics and Photonic Materials (IAPP) TU Dresden Email:

Last modified: Aug 18, 2026