Low atmospheric CO levels before the rise of forested ecosystems.

The emergence of forests on Earth (~385 million years ago, Ma) has been linked to an order-of-magnitude decline in atmospheric CO levels and global climatic cooling by altering continental weathering processes, but observational constraints on atmospheric CO before the rise of forests carry large, often unbound, uncertainties. Here, we calibrate a mechanistic model for gas exchange in modern lycophytes and constrain atmospheric CO levels 410-380 Ma from related fossilized plants with bound uncertainties of approximately ±100 ppm (1 sd). We find that the atmosphere contained ~525-715 ppm CO before continents were afforested, and that Earth was partially glaciated according to a palaeoclimate model.

Adsorption Study of Novel Gemini Cationic Surfactant in Carbonate Reservoir Cores-Influence of Critical Parameters.

Surfactant flooding is an enhanced oil recovery method that recovers residual and capillary trapped oil by improving pore-scale displacement efficiency. Low retention of injected chemicals is desired to ensure an economic and cost-effective recovery process. This paper examines the adsorption behavior of a novel gemini cationic surfactant on carbonate cores.

Controlling surface properties of electrospun polyphenylsulfone using plasma treatment and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.

Plasma treatment is an efficient method to modify organic surfaces. In this work electrospun polyphenylsulfone was systematically subjected to low-pressure microwave plasma and atmospheric-pressure coplanar barrier discharge in order to control the surface chemistry, which is important for controlling surface properties. Polar anchor groups such as keto/aldehyde groups and especially carboxylic acid groups affect hydrophilicity.

Diluted Oxide Interfaces with Tunable Ground States.

The metallic interface between two oxide insulators, such as LaAlO /SrTiO (LAO/STO), provides new opportunities for electronics and spintronics. However, due to the presence of multiple orbital populations, tailoring the interfacial properties such as the ground state and metal-insulator transitions remains challenging. Here, an unforeseen tunability of the phase diagram of LAO/STO is reported by alloying LAO with a ferromagnetic LaMnO insulator without forming lattice disorder and at the same time without changing the polarity of the system.

Preparation of super-hydrophilic polyphenylsulfone nanofiber membranes for water treatment.

Electrospun nanofiber membrane-supported thin film composite (TFC) membranes exhibit great potential in water purification. In this work, electrospun polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) nanofiber membranes were prepared and modified by heat and plasma treatments. The resulting membranes were used as support layers for biomimetic TFC-based forward osmosis membranes.