음압 환경에서 발생한 기포의 성장

Cavitation is invariably fatal to plants because it causes embolism in water transporting conduits; however, the trend of expansion is not fully elucidated. Here we figure out the regime map throughout “the life of bubbles” by using a hydrogel synthetic tree composed of a series of conduits with multiscale hierarchical wrinkles fabricated by double molding and plasma treatment techniques. In its early stage, the wall with dense wrinkles is likely to nucleate a bubble with low expansion speed. Then the bubble grows up in the trend of Washburn’s law. In the matured stage, the speed converges to certain value determined by Darcy’s law. Here we maneuver the critical nucleation pressure by controlling the dimension of wrinkles, and the system is facilitated as a pressure controller for tensional environment. Also, our direct visualization of cavitation can give deeper insight about unexplored plant physiology.