School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 311 Ferst Drive NW, Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0100, USA.
Langmuir. 2013 Mar 5;29(9):3012-23. doi: 10.1021/la305144z. Epub 2013 Feb 22.
Plant pollens are microscopic particles exhibiting a remarkable breadth of complex solid surface features. In addition, many pollen grains are coated with a viscous liquid, "pollenkitt", thought to play important roles in pollen dispersion and adhesion. However, there exist no quantitative studies of the effects of solid surface features or pollenkitt on adhesion of pollen grains, and it remains unclear what role these features play in pollen adhesion and transport. We report AFM adhesion measurements of five pollen species with a series of test surfaces in which each pollen has a unique solid surface morphology and pollenkitt volume. The results indicate that the combination of surface morphology (size and shape of echinate or reticulate features) with the pollenkitt volume provides pollens with a remarkably tunable adhesion to surfaces. With pollenkitt removed, pollen grains had relatively low adhesion strengths that were independent of surface chemistry and scalable with the tip radius of the pollen's ornamentation features, according to the Hamaker model. With the pollenkitt intact, adhesion was up to 3-6 times higher than the dry grains and exhibited strong substrate dependence. The adhesion enhancing effect of pollenkitt was driven by the formation of pollenkitt capillary bridges and was surprisingly species-dependent, with echinate insect-pollinated species (dandelion and sunflower) showing significantly stronger adhesion and higher substrate dependence than wind-pollinated species (ragweed, poplar, and olive). The combination of high pollenkitt volume and large convex, spiny surface features in echinate entomophilous varieties appears to enhance the spreading area of the liquid pollenkitt relative to varieties of pollen with less pollenkitt volume and less pronounced surface features. Measurements of pollenkitt surface energy indicate that the adhesive strength of capillary bridges is primarily dependent on nonpolar van der Waals interactions, with some contribution from the Lewis basic component of surface energy.
植物花粉是具有显著复杂固体质表特征的微小颗粒。此外,许多花粉粒都覆盖着一层粘性液体,即“花粉胶”,被认为在花粉传播和附着中起着重要作用。然而,目前还没有关于固体质表特征或花粉胶对花粉附着的影响的定量研究,也不清楚这些特征在花粉附着和传输中扮演着什么样的角色。我们报告了五种花粉物种在一系列测试表面上的原子力显微镜(AFM)附着测量结果,其中每种花粉都具有独特的固体质表形态和花粉胶体积。结果表明,表面形态(刺状或网状特征的大小和形状)与花粉胶体积的结合为花粉提供了对表面显著可调的附着能力。在去除花粉胶后,花粉粒的附着强度相对较低,与表面化学性质无关,且可根据花粉纹饰特征的尖端半径进行缩放,符合哈默模型。保留花粉胶时,附着强度高达干燥花粉的 3-6 倍,且对基底有强烈的依赖性。花粉胶的附着增强效应是由花粉胶毛细桥的形成驱动的,而且令人惊讶的是具有物种依赖性,刺状虫媒授粉物种(蒲公英和向日葵)的附着强度和对基底的依赖性明显高于风媒授粉物种(豚草、杨树和橄榄)。在刺状的虫媒授粉品种中,高花粉胶体积与大而凸的、刺状的表面特征相结合,似乎相对于花粉胶体积较小且表面特征不明显的品种,能够增加液体花粉胶的铺展面积。花粉胶表面能的测量表明,毛细桥的附着强度主要取决于非极性范德华相互作用,表面能的路易斯碱性成分也有一定贡献。