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- Nunes, P., et al.
(författare)
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The leaf of Agapanthus africanus (L.) Hoffm. : A physical-chemical perspective of terrestrialization in the cuticle
- 2023
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Ingår i: Environmental and Experimental Botany. - : Elsevier BV. - 0098-8472 .- 1873-7307. ; 208
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Although Agapanthus africanus (L.) Hoffm. is one of the most popular ornamental species in both hemispheres, it has an extremely restricted wild occurrence (Cape province, South Africa). This contradiction between gener-alized ornamental application and natural distribution was the basis for the analytical approach adopted in the present work. We hypothesized that characteristic features of the cuticular waxes were adopted by this species to help it cope with severe dehydration associated with marine salinity on account of the short distance of the wild populations to the sea. A comprehensive morpho-anatomical, histological and physical-chemical analysis was performed on the epicuticular and intracuticular layers of the adaxial and abaxial surfaces of leaves of specimens of A. africanus. The adaxial epicuticular surface is hydrophilic and the abaxial epicuticular surface exhibits globally hydrophobic behavior. The main chemical compounds detected in the wax layers of both surfaces of the leaf are the short-chain monocaprylin monoglyceride (C8), and very long-chain 1-hexacosanol (C26) and 1-octa-cosanol (C28) alcohols. While monocaprylin is particularly abundant in the intracuticular layers, the epicuticular adaxial surface revealed the highest concentration of both alcohols. We demonstrate that the smart combination of these two classes of molecules with opposite water affinity endows the A. africanus leaf cuticle with a unique water management system combining the efficient entrapment of water in the disordered alpha-gel phase formed by monocaprylin and the high resistance to water transport provided by ordered domains composed of tightly packed, all-trans alkyl chains of the above pair of alcohols. The remarkable structural similarity existing between the monocaprylin alpha-gel and the mucilage of algae is an evidence of the terrestrialization process.
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- Rodriguez, S., et al.
(författare)
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The Surfaces of the Ceratonia siliqua L. (Carob) Leaflet : Insights from Physics and Chemistry
- 2021
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Ingår i: Langmuir. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 0743-7463 .- 1520-5827. ; 37:6, s. 2011-2028
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The production of superhydrophobic coatings inspired by the surface of plant leaves is a challenging goal. Such coatings hold a bright technological future in niche markets of the aeronautical, space, naval, building, automobile, and biomedical sectors. This work is focused on the adaxial (top) and abaxial (bottom) surfaces of the leaflet of the Ceratonia silique L. (carob), a high-commercial-value Mediterranean tree cultivated in many regions of the world. The adaxial and abaxial surfaces feature hydrophobic and superhydrophobic behaviors, respectively. Their chemical composition is very simple: monopalmitin ester and palmitic acid are protuberant in the epicuticular and intracuticular wax layers of the adaxial surface, respectively, whereas 1-octacosanol dominates in the abaxial wax layers. In both surfaces, epicuticular wax is organized along a randomly oriented and intricate network of nanometer-thick and micrometer-long plates, whose density and degree of interconnection are significantly higher in the abaxial surface. The measured tilting angles for the abaxial surface (12-70 degrees) reveal unusual variable density and water adhesion of the nanostructured plate-based texture. Optical measurements demonstrate that light reflectance/absorbance of the glaucous abaxial surface is significantly higher/lower than that of the nonglaucous adaxial surface. In both surfaces, diffuse reflectance is dominant, and the absorbance is weakly dependent on the light incidence angle. We show that the highly dense nanostructured platelike texture of the epicuticular abaxial layer of the C. siliqua leaflet works as a sophisticated light and water management system: it reflects solar radiation diffusely to lower the surface temperature, and it has superhydrophobic character to keep the surface dry. Such attributes enable efficient gas exchange (photosynthesis and respiration), transpiration, and evaporation. To mimic for the first time the abaxial surface, a templation approach was adopted using poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS)/poly(methylphenylsiloxane) (PMPS) positive/negative replicas and a soft polymer/siloxane negative replica produced by the sol-gel process. Because high topographical variations of the biotemplate and wax adhesion to the biohybrid film affected the replication quality, the reproduction of the wax texture via the synthesis of 1-octacosanol-grafted siloxane-based hybrid materials is proposed as a suitable route to duplicate the abaxial surface with high fidelity. The natural chemical/physical strategy adopted by the C. siliqua leaflet to face the harsh Mediterranean climate is a powerful source of bioinspiration for the development of diffuse reflecting and superhydrophobic material systems with foreseen applications as dual-functional antiglare and water-repelling coatings.
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