Moreover, plants have evolved the ability to respond to environmental changes to allow their vasculatures to function more healthily even in an ever-changing natural environment. This vasculature has inspired us to develop artificial systems with embedded fluidic channels, such as biomimetic microfluidic devices ( 1– 5). For example, in leaves, which represent the main organ of plants for photosynthesis, their veins can deliver the nutrients produced by photosynthesis to the rest of the body while also transporting water throughout the leaflet for transpiration. Plants have very rich and complex vasculature that transports water and nutrients through their tissues to maintain normal metabolism.
The principle behind this morphable microsystem can potentially be extended to applications that require responsiveness between the environment and the devices, such as dynamic artificial vascular networks and shape-adaptive flexible electronics. It senses the environmental stimuli and feeds them back positively into photosynthetic conversion through morphological transformation. TOM can be used as an environmentally adaptive photomicroreactor.
We term this device TransfOrigami microfluidics (TOM) to highlight the close connection between its transformation and the origami structure. Furthermore, by designing a foldable geometry, these responsive movements can follow the preset origami transformation. Plants respond to environmental stimuli through nastic movement, which inspires us to introduce transformable microfluidics: By embedding stimuli-responsive materials, the microfluidic device can respond to temperature, humidity, and light irradiance. In contrast, synthetic microfluidic systems have rarely demonstrated this environmental responsiveness. The healthy functioning of the plants’ vasculature depends on their ability to respond to environmental changes.
0 kommentar(er)
