Stomata are pore-like organs on green plants, normally found only on the under or shaded sides of leaves.  Long thought of as a plant cooling system their actual function is to capture CO2 from the atmosphere by exchanging water for carbon dioxide.  The exchange is accomplished by having water directly open to air to facilitate the capture.

    The molecules are cxchanged easily as both have similar size, shape and polarity.  Carbon dioxide is much more soluble in water than nitrogen or oxygen.  Nitrogen and oxygen have shapes different than that of CO2or water and no polarity.  Carbon dioxide is polar about one third of the time as one oxygen can move around the carbon surface while the other is fixed.

     Molecular polarity is a consequence of the unequal distribution of charges within the molecules. CO2 is illustrated as a non-polar molecule in many textbooks, but one of the oxygens has two "S" electron bonds which allow it to slide around the carbon and create an unequal distribution of electrons. Apparently this is happening enough to facilitate penetration of CO2 moleules into green plant membranes which present water surfaces microscopically.

     When stomata are operating to acquire CO2 the guard cells, seen in the above figure at "A" are small, opening the chamber to admit air. They only need to swell to close the chamber and stop the process.  They do this in response to the concentration of CO2 in the capillaries as transpiration drops significantly when CO2 is supplied to the roots in our tests.   
  
A capillary tube of cells separates the interior chamber of the stomata from the interior of the stomata.  These tubes are pure cellulose and look like a fishnet stocking with mesh that may be up to 1 mm across. The plant sap inside is essentially water.  Water forms a membrane by surface tension which exposes up to 10^7 water molecules each way or 10^49 in the one millimimeter opening.   Surface tension forms membranes keeping water in the tube while allowing gas to pass both as water evaporating and CO2 entering the water where it forms the HCO3= anion.  The surrounding cells are more lignous, wood-like solid and not permeable to gas. We show lignous cells here as undefined green areas.

       Water comes from the roots to the capillary tubes, "C," in plants all the way from the roots to the leaves.  Water vapor enters the stomata chamber "B" from the capillaries.  CO2 is 73.5 times more soluble in water than nitrogen and 54.2 times more soluble than oxygen thus selection is achieved naturally.

       The process is inefficient only because so little CO2 is present in modern air.  When green plants first developed, young Earth's atmosphere contained 12% CO2  instead of the 0.038% of today.  Thus, the system on which all life depends is inefficient to a point approaching collapse.  The greatest need of green plants is for more carbon dioxide and SCAF supplies it directly.

   In a fixed bond representation water vapor and carbon dioxide appear to be different and CO2 non-polar, but a more sophisticated, quantum mechanical representation tells another story.

       Carbon atoms are also illustrated as tiny tetrahedra with single electron bonds equally spaced in three dimensions at 120 degree angles.  This is not an accurate representation.  A better model comes to us from quantum mechanics where we see two "s" shells for two electrons and "p" orbitals for two more electrons.  "s" shells are spherical and non-directional where "p" orbitals are in directionally oriented "dumbell" or "figure 8" shells on a Cartesian axis at 90 degrees to one another.


        The two carbon-oxygen bonds are "p-p" bond in onc case and "s-p" in the other. Where thre are two electrons in the "s" shells, themselves bonded by opposite spin produced magnetism, the "p" shells fill with one electron each until all three are occupied by one electron.  Then, each next electron joins a single electron as they are added.  

        Oxygen has one filled directional "p" orbital, here in yellow, and two half-filled, single electron occupied, here in green.  Carbon first combines with oxygen by pairing the two "p" electrons from each.  It is thought that electrons naturally pair as their spin generates strong magnetic fields binding them in pairs.  The effect can be seen with small magnets which when put together exhibit a much reduced magnetic field when combined, but a considerable force holding them together.

        While the "2s" electrons of carbon are already paired they can be sought and bound with unpaired "p" electrons from a second oxygen as it appears electrons prefer more space to a partner.  There is a rule structure in "s" and "p" electron bonding which is beyond the scope of this piece, but we give a link to more information below.

        Where "s" electrons are non-directional the second oxygen slides around the central carbon molecular core giving the molecule an unequal distribution of charges and a polar surface like that of water molecules, but only when the second oxygen is in the upper or lower position of its' movement giving it the "Mousekateers hat" appearance that is resonant to infrared waves.  The effect is rather like ringing one of two identical bells close together.  The unrung bell rings in sympathy with the first as it absorbs the energy of the sound waves converting them to kinetic energy ringing the bell as if it had been struck.  The energy absorbed by atoms is that which keeps them in motion and we interpret as temperature.

         It is thought the unequal distribution of electrons when the second oxygen is in the upper or lower position enables CO2's water solubility facilitating transmission through permeable membranes of water surface tension in the "fishnet" capillaries of the stomata.


        For a very comprehensive presentation of quantum mechanical "s" and "p" bonds please see: http://www.chm.davidson.edu/ChemistryApplets/AtomicOrbitals/hybrid.html 
       
        Water and carbon dioxide molecules are very close to the same size in spite of CO2 being 2.44 times as heavy as H2O.  Such  is the nature of atoms where their parts are very small, only 1/10,000 their apparent size and the attractive forces within increase with mass, shrinking the heavier atoms such that all molecules with identical numbers of atoms are the same size regardless the mass of the atoms.

        Where CO2 is but one molecule of every 2640 molecules comprising air the chances of directly exhanging a water molecule for a carbon dioxide are slim so plants lose huge amounts of water to maintain a water surface CO2 can enter.  SCAF puts CO2 into the soil water which is directly absorbed by roots in a solution plants can process immediately.  Water will not carry enough CO2 to poison it for the plants.  It delivered in an ideal amount.  This is a huge improvement in the function of green plants with a concomitant saving in water.  We have data from experiments showing plants receiving CO2 from the soil transpire much less water and grow much smaller leaves in response to water reduction stress tests.
   
         For the 300 years since the invention of the microscope, conventional wisdom has been that stomata cooled plants by transpiration as a primary function analogous to our pores.  But, plants are much more tolerant of heat than animals.  Cacti and bromeliads living in our hottest climates, have very few stomata and transpire very little water.  The function of plant transpiration is not as it has been thought and taught.  


        It is our conclusion the function of plant transpiration is the exchange for CO2.  Where so little CO2 is in air now the process is inherently inefficient.  As a consequence transpiration pulls increasing amounts of minerals and nitrogenous substances from soil which can poison the plant.  Reducing water need in plant physiology aids the return of relatively alkaline soils to farming as sharply reduced ion acquisition will not poison plants.  
   
        The main stomata function is to capture CO2 from the atmosphere for photosynthesis in sunlit leaves and put glucose unit molecules into the circulatory system of the plants so they could be used as fuel or building blocks for starch, cellulose fiber or wood.

        It is a miracle agriculture functions well enough to support animal life.  We will imporve that with SCAF by directly feeding the CO2 green plants need to make everything from root to stem, flower and fruit.  With SCAF man will become the steward of earth in the fulfillment of his destiny.