Temporal nanofluid environments induce prebiotic condensation in water.

Water is a problem in understanding chemical evolution towards life's origins on Earth. Although all known life is being based on water key prebiotic reactions are inhibited by it. The prebiotic plausibility of current strategies to circumvent this paradox is questionable regarding the principle that evolution builds on existing pathways.

Interparticle and Brownian forces controlling particle aggregation and rheology of silicate melts containing platinum-group element particles.

We study the rheology of silicate melts containing platinum-group element (PGE) particles. They exhibit a shear-thinning behaviour, an intense aggregation tendency, and an anomalously high apparent viscosity in the low shear rate limit, even at very low particle volume fraction. Using a compilation of published experimental data, we analyse these effects in three steps.

Revealing the Physicochemical Basis of Organic Solid-Solid Wetting Deposition: Casimir-like Forces, Hydrophobic Collapse, and the Role of the Zeta Potential.

Supramolecular self-assembly at the solid-solid interface enables the deposition and monolayer formation of insoluble organic semiconductors under ambient conditions. The underlying process, termed as the organic solid-solid wetting deposition (OSWD), generates two-dimensional adsorbates directly from dispersed three-dimensional organic crystals. This straightforward process has important implications in various fields of research and technology, such as in the domains of low-dimensional crystal engineering, the chemical doping and band gap engineering of graphene, and in the area of field-effect transistor fabrication.

Quantum Tunnelling to the Origin and Evolution of Life.

Quantum tunnelling is a phenomenon which becomes relevant at the nanoscale and below. It is a paradox from the classical point of view as it enables elementary particles and atoms to permeate an energetic barrier without the need for sufficient energy to overcome it. Tunnelling might seem to be an exotic process only important for special physical effects and applications such as the Tunnel Diode, Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy (electron tunnelling) or Near-field Optical Microscopy operating in photon tunnelling mode.

Supramolecular self-assembly initiated by solid-solid wetting.

We present a preparation method for self-assembled supra-molecular monolayers of unsubstituted organic semiconductors and pigments on a solid substrate, applicable under ambient conditions. The deposition is based on a solid-solid wetting phenomenon, whereas the subsequent layer growth proceeds according to standard models. Molecular adsorption results from direct contact of the compound in a nanocrystalline state with the solid surface.