Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de Physique

The resistance of trees to drought is a growing concern in the context of global warming. Under dry conditions, embolisms can appear in the sap network within leaves, potentially stopping the circulation and leading to leaf drying. However, the propagation and growth of embolisms in leaves remains poorly understood. Researchers from LIPhy have undertaken a physical study to study such embolisms in an artificial leaf.

Red blood cells have a subtle mechanics which is not fully described by current models, that enables them to perform their oxygen transport function, . LIPhy researchers, in collaboration with Université Libre de Bruxelles, carried out an extensive experimental study of their dynamics in shear flow which shows a multiplicity of simultaneous dynamic states linked to the variability of properties between cells. This constitutes a reference work for the validation of new models.

Physicists developed recently a simple sensor to measure minute liquid flow rates. This sensor, based on the accumulation of liquid within a deformable membrane, has been developed for the study of flows in nanofluidics. In particular, this sensor is devoted to the characterisation of coupled transport phenomena within a single nanopore. These phenomena, that remain partially understood, are of interest for water treatment and renewable energy conversion.