Water, Not Salt, Causes Most of the Seebeck Effect of Nonisothermal Aqueous Electrolytes.

A temperature difference between two electrolyte-immersed electrodes often yields a voltage Δψ between them. This electrolyte Seebeck effect is usually explained by cations and anions flowing differently in thermal gradients. However, using molecular simulations, we found almost the same Δψ for cells filled with pure water as with aqueous alkali halides.

How water wets and self-hydrophilizes nanopatterns of physisorbed hydrocarbons.

Hypothesis: Weakly bound, physisorbed hydrocarbons could in principle provide a similar water-repellency as obtained by chemisorption of strongly bound hydrophobic molecules at surfaces.

Experiments: Here we present experiments and computer simulations on the wetting behaviour of water on molecularly thin, self-assembled alkane carpets of dotriacontane (n-CH or C32) physisorbed on the hydrophilic native oxide layer of silicon surfaces during dip-coating from a binary alkane solution. By changing the dip-coating velocity we control the initial C32 surface coverage and achieve distinct film morphologies, encompassing homogeneous coatings with self-organised nanopatterns that range from dendritic nano-islands to stripes.

First Genome Sequence of Potential Mycotoxin-Degrading Bacterium Devosia nanyangense DDB001.

Devosia sp. nov. DDB001, isolated from mycotoxin-contaminated soil, is a potential mycotoxin-degrading alphaproteobacterium.