Emerging materials such as graphene oxide (GO) have micro and nano features that are functionally similar to those in plant cell walls involved in water transport. Therefore, it may now be possible to design and build biomimetic trees to lift water via mechanisms similar to those employed by trees, allowing for potential applications such as passive water pumping, filtering, and evaporative cooling. The tallest trees can raise large volumes of water to over 100 meters using only the vapor pressure gradient between their leaves and the atmosphere. This phenomenon occurs in all terrestrial plants when capillary forces generated in the microscopic pores in the cell walls of leaves are collectively applied to large diameter xylem conduits. The design of a synthetic tree that mimics these mechanisms will allow water to be moved to heights greater than is currently possible by any engineered system that does not require the use of a positive pressure pump. We are testing the suitability of membranous GO as the leaf of a synthetic tree and present an analysis in support of this design. In addition, we include results from a preliminary design using ceramics.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.