Remarkable Rate of Water Evaporation through Naked Veins of Natural Tree Leaves.

ABSTRACT: In the form of leaves, nature designs the finest photothermal evaporators, and the tremendous evaporation efficiency of leaves is supported by a precisely designed network of veins. Here, we have demonstrated that the vein network of a natural leaf can be extracted through a simple water-assisted digestion process and exploited for low-energy steam generation. The naked leaf veins exhibit a remarkable flux (evaporation rate, 1.5 kg·m^-2·h^-1) of capillary evaporation under ambient conditions (25 °C and 30% RH), close to the photothermal material-based evaporators reported in the recent literature. Even inside a dark box, naked veins exhibit an evaporation rate up to 4.5 kg·m^-2·h^-1 (at 30% relative humidity (RH) and a wind speed of 22 km·h^-1

SUBMITTER: Konch TJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8359162 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature