Lotos Effect
I think everyone has heared about the Lotos effect.
The word "Lotos effect" comes from the holy asiatic Lotos bloom (Nelumbo nucifera). If the leaf surface of that plant is dirty, and water runs over the bloom, its clean again in a few moments.
Before :
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After :
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This cleaning effect is called Lotos Effect. It works because of the rough surface of the plant`s leaf. That surface has microscopic small "hills".
When water runs over the plant's leafes without that property the dirt rests on the leaf. If the flat waterdrop runs over the leafes the dirt has a
good contact to the surface, and so rests again.
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With plants like the lotus, the dirt is carried away by the water drops.
the water drop shapes itself round as a ball on the leaf surface and therefore the dirt can get no contact to the leaf.
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Discoverer of the lotus effect is Wilhelm Barthlott, to whom in 1997 the Karl Heinz Beckurt price was given to.
Er hat die Beschaffenheit der Lotos erforscht, und
herausgefunden, dass die Mikrostruktur der Blattoberfläche wenige Mikrometer groß, und
Wachsbeschichtet ist. So kann kein Schmutz daran haften, und wird von abperlenden
Regentropfen mitgenommen.He examined and the nature of the Lotos, and found out that the microstructure of the leaves surface is few micrometers small and wax-coated. Thus no dirt can stick to it, and is carried forward from water.
The rough surface of the Lotos is used to push away dirt
Here you can see a water drop, which forms itself to a ball, and takes up dirt particles. The particles remain in/on the water drop, and not on the leaf.
In the meantime there are also such wall colours and windowpanes, which were invented after the model of the Lotos effect and function.
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