Lotus plant

THE LOTUS PLANT GROWS in aquatic environments. In order to thrive in such an environment the surface of a lotus leaf is highly water repellent. Scientists call surfaces with this property superhydrophobic. The superhydrophobic character of the lotus leaf not only allows it to float on water but also causes... 

Biomimetic textiles are under development and these include hydrophobic, self-cleaning surfaces analogous to the behaviour of leaf surfaces occurring in nature, such as the lotus plant, and flexible, translucent thermal insulated membranes analogous to the behaviour of the polar bear s fur (Stegmaier and Planck, 2007). 

Wettability only makes sense for a pair of snbstances. Water drops on the snrfaces of plants behave the way they do becanse the wettability is low. The phenomenon was first stndied on lotus plants. Therefore, it is often called the lotos effect. The lotos effect is caused by a special surface stracture the lotos leaf features 5-10 gm high warts that are 10-15 gm away from each other, which form a protective layer... 

The lotus plant grows in aquatic environments. To thrive in such an environment the surface of a lotus leaf is highly water repellent. Scientists call surfaces with this property superhydrophobic. The superhydrophobic character of the lotus leaf not only allows it to float on water but also causes any water that falls on the leaf to bead up and roll off. The water drops collect dirt as they roll off, keeping the leaf clean, even in the muddy ponds and lakes where lotus plants tend to grow. Because of its self-cleaning properties, the lotus plant is considered a symbol of purity in many Eastern cultures. 

BECAUSE THE LEAVES OF THE LOTUS PLANT are highly water repellent, any water on a leaf beads up to minimize contact with the leaf surface. 

Surfaces of certain plants — such as the leaf of the Lotus plant — have a surface topography with two scales of roughness in the form of a base profile with peak-to-peak distances of the order of several micrometers and a superposed fine structure with peak-to-peak distances significantly below one micrometer [7-11]. Given this, the Lotus leaf follows the Cassie-Baxter state as sketched in Fig. Ic. Surfaces with... 

It is recognized that water spreading does not occur on lotus plant leaves, but instead forms a spherical droplet. This is the classic heterogeneous surface with trapped air in the surface grooves, where now /2 is the fraction of open area. Then the relationship becomes... 

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