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Liquid-crystal project aids Botanical Garden
By Carol Biliczky
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Thursday, Jan 10, 2008
The Cleveland Botanical Garden and Kent State University's Liquid Crystal Institute announced a partnership Wednesday to design new panels to better serve the greenhouse industry.
The goal is to control sunlight, extend the plant-growing season and conserve energy.
''If plants are receiving the most efficient amount of light, they're likely to come to flower or fruit more quickly,'' said Mark Druckenbrod, project manager for the Botanical Garden. ''We want to see how well we can grow plants under a liquid-crystal panel.''
The nonprofit Botanical Garden, located on nine acres in University Circle in East Cleveland, is building two 8-foot-by-10-foot greenhouses — one with normal, single- layer glass and the second with liquid-crystal panels pioneered by Kent State.
Liquid-crystal technology already is found in laptop computers, flat-screen TVs and digital watches. The crystals act in part like a solid and in part like a liquid to block light or to permit it to flow through the panel.
In Cleveland, with $38,000 in grants from the Gund Foundation and $20,000 from the Bucknell Fund, KSU and Botanical Garden researchers hope that the liquid-crystal windows can be used to manipulate sunlight and control temper
ature and light wavelengths.
Starting in April, the researchers will spend a year comparing plants in the liquid-crystal greenhouse with those in the control greenhouse.
Then in the summer of 2009, researchers aim to develop the next generation of exterior, weather-resistant liquid-crystal panels that control the light spectrum as well as light intensity.
Eventually, proven panels could be installed on the Botanical Garden's 18,000-square-foot Eleanor Armstrong Smith Glasshouse, which showcases endangered ecosystems from the spiny desert of Madagascar and the cloud forest of Costa Rica.
Results of the study also might have applications for residential greenhouses, conservatories and major office and museum-like glass structures, Druckenbrod said.
Researchers for the project are Christin DeJong, an urban botanist at the Botanical Garden, and KSU's Deng-Ke Yang, a professor of chemical physics; Oleg Lavrentovich, director of the Liquid Crystal Institute, and John West, vice president of research and dean of graduate studies.
Carol Biliczky can be reached at 330-996-3729 or cbiliczky@thebeaconjournal.com.
The Cleveland Botanical Garden and Kent State University's Liquid Crystal Institute announced a partnership Wednesday to design new panels to better serve the greenhouse industry.
Get the full article here.
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