Plant sciences articles within Communications Materials

Featured

• Article
  25 October 2022 | Open Access

  Liquid-solid contact electrification when water droplets hit living plant leaves

  Contact electrification can generate useable charge on a variety of surfaces. Here, surface charge creation when a single water droplet hits various plant leaves is investigated, including the effect of droplet characteristics and whether the plant leaf is hydrophilic or hydrophobic.

  • Serena Armiento
  • , Carlo Filippeschi
  •  & Barbara Mazzolai

• Article
  07 October 2021 | Open Access

  Plant-like hooked miniature machines for on-leaf sensing and delivery

  Miniaturized systems for in situ plant applications are important to understand and preserve natural ecosystems. Here, the attachment of bioinspired microhooks to the surfaces of plant leaves is investigated, and on-leaf soft machines fabricated for monitoring conditions and for molecular delivery.

  • Isabella Fiorello
  • , Fabian Meder
  •  & Barbara Mazzolai

• Article
  09 June 2021 | Open Access

  In situ plant materials hyperspectral imaging by multimodal scattering near-field optical microscopy

  Plant cells are elaborate three-dimensional polymer nano-constructs with complex chemistry. Here, multimodal scattering nearfield optical microscopy of poplar trees is used to establish in situ high-resolution mappings of the local dielectric functions and compositional distribution of lignin and cellulose in plant cell walls.

  • Anne M. Charrier
  • , Aubin C. Normand
  •  & Aude L. Lereu

• Article
  04 January 2021 | Open Access

  Microstructural degradation during the storage of biomass pellets

  Biomass pellets are a promising renewable source of fuel, and are increasingly transported around the globe. Here, it is found that the combined effect of heat and humidity during pellet storage causes inclusion, pore and crack growth, degrading the microstructure.

  • Luis Cutz
  • , Urša Tiringer
  •  & Wiebren de Jong