Orientation and rotation of cholesteric liquid crystals relative to a heat flow studied by molecular dynamics simulation and implications for the Lehmann effect.

Alignment effects caused by a heat flow in the cholesteric liquid crystal phase of three coarse grained molecular model systems based on the Gay-Berne potential have been studied by molecular dynamics simulation. In order to keep the systems homogeneous, the Evans heat flow algorithm, where a fictitious mechanical heat field rather than a temperature gradient drives the heat flow, was used. It was found that the cholesteric axis orients in such a way that the heat flow and thereby the irreversible energy dissipation rate are minimized.

Dataset from flexural, impact, and hydraulic pressure tests on driven energy piles.

Data from the flexural, impact, and hydraulic pressure tests performed on seven precast concrete driven energy piles is presented in this paper. The data is published and made publicly accessible through the open-access database DataverseNO. The dataset involves (a) material properties of all of the materials used in manufacturing the energy piles, (b) raw data files from impact tests, which are recorded by the pile driving analyzer (PDA) device and sensors, (c) the hydraulic pressure test data performed between the impact and bending tests, which includes the raw data of pressure measurements from analogue pressure gauge, and (d) the data from the bending tests which includes the raw and processed data files recorded by the displacement transducers, loadcell and also the raw and processed images for the digital image correlation (DIC) analysis.

Nucleic acid-binding bis-acridine orange dyes with improved properties for bioimaging and PCR applications.

Understanding the intricate interactions of molecular dyes with nucleic acids is pivotal for advancing medical and biochemical applications. In this work, we present a comprehensive study of the interplay between a novel series of bis-acridine orange (BAO) dyes and double-stranded DNA (dsDNA). These BAO dyes were intentionally designed as two acridine orange units connected by neutral linkers featuring a 2,5-disubstituted thiophene moiety.

Water Vapor Adsorption-Desorption Hysteresis Due to Clustering of Water on Nonporous Surfaces.

Water vapor is continuously adsorbed onto and desorbed from all kinds of surfaces depending on changes in relative humidity. Adsorption-desorption hysteresis of water that occurs on various nonporous surfaces and extends down to low relative humidities has been reported for decades, but remains unexplained. Here we show experimentally that such hysteresis is a common phenomenon on metal oxide and mineral surfaces and can be divided into two distinct categories based on the wettability of the adsorbent surface.

Quantifying and Decoupling Molecular Interactions of Ionic Liquids with Gold Electrodes.

This work combined gold colloid probe atomic force microscopy (AFM) with a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) to accurately quantify the molecular interactions of fluorine-free phosphonium-based ionic liquids (ILs) with gold electrode surfaces. First, the interactions of ILs with the gold electrode per unit area (, N/m) were obtained via the force-distance curves measured by gold probe AFM. Second, a QCM was employed to detect the IL amount to acquire the equilibrium number of IL molecules adsorbed onto the gold electrode per unit area (, Num/m).