Liquid-solid interaction at nanoscale and its application in vegetal biology

TL;DR

This paper explores nanoscale liquid-solid interactions in plant xylem, proposing a model that explains water ascent in tall trees by considering disjoining pressure effects, challenging traditional theories and addressing cavitation issues.

Contribution

It introduces a nanoscale liquid flow model incorporating disjoining pressure, providing a new explanation for water transport in tall trees beyond the cohesion-tension theory.

Findings

Disjoining pressure influences sap flow in xylem.

Nanoscale flow models can explain water ascent without cavitation.

Application of nanofilm theory to plant biology.

Abstract

The water ascent in tall trees is subject to controversy: the vegetal biologists debate on the validity of the cohesion-tension theory which considers strong negative pressures in microtubes of xylem carrying the crude sap. This article aims to point out that liquids are submitted at the walls to intermolecular forces inferring density gradients making heterogeneous liquid layers and therefore disqualifying the Navier-Stokes equations for nanofilms. The crude sap motion takes the disjoining pressure gradient into account and the sap flow dramatically increases such that the watering of nanolayers may be analogous to a microscopic flow. Application to microtubes of xylem avoids the problem of cavitation and enables us to understand why the ascent of sap is possible for very high trees.