Transitioning to Microplastic-Free Seed Coatings: Challenges and Solutions.

This review addresses the issue of replacing manufactured microplastics in seed coatings used in agriculture. Firstly, it focuses on the policy and regulatory actions taken on microplastics at a global level. There is no consensus within the scientific community on the definition of a microplastic and, more generally, on the classification of plastic debris.

Dipole polarizability of onion-like carbons and electromagnetic properties of their composites.

Onion-like carbons (OLC) obtained by thermal transformation of nanodiamonds are agglomerates of multi-shell fullerenes, often covered by an external graphitic mantle. For the present work, elemental OLC units were constructed on the computer by coalescence of several two-layer fullerenes, in a structure similar to carbon peapods with a corrugated external wall. The electrical polarizability of such pod-of-peas fullerenes has been computed by a classical monopole-dipole atomistic theory.

Long nanotube dielectric properties used as sensors of large molecules: a semicontinuum approach.

A semicontinuum approach on the basis of an effective polarizability tensor per length and radius units is used to describe the dielectric response of a long single wall nanotube to the adsorption of an extended molecule. Changes in the permittivity ratio of the nanotube+molecule over the nanotube alone, which are directly connected to frequency shifts of the nanotube in a resonator configuration due to the presence of the molecule, provide a test of sensitivity of the system. The behavior of this ratio is analyzed for linear and circular geometries of the molecule, as a function of the tube characteristics (length and radius) and of the molecular size and polarizability distribution.

Influence of molecular adsorption on the dielectric properties of a single wall nanotube: a model sensor.

Recent measurements of the resonance frequency of a copper disk covered with carbon nanotube bundles have shown characteristic resonance shifts during exposure with various gas molecules. The shifts were interpreted as the change of the dielectric permittivity of the system forming the sensor due to the electric properties of the adsorbed molecules. Starting from a simplified sensor model formed by one single wall nanotube, we develop a self-consistent approach to describe the variation of the linear dielectric susceptibility of the tube at the atomic scale when molecules are adsorbed at its external surface.