Transition from a Sponge-Like to an Onion-Like Nanostructure in the L Phase - Part I.

Hypothesis: In the phase diagram of the system HO/NaCl - AOT (sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl) sulfosuccinate) a homogeneous L channel can be detected at T = 25 °C as a function of the surfactant and the NaCl mass fraction. Our hypothesis is that a structural transition from a sponge-like to an onion-like structure occurs in this channel.

Experiments: We (a) determined the relevant part of the phase diagram, (b) carried out electrical conductivity and viscosity measurements, (c) visualized the nanostructure with freeze-fracture electron microscopy (FFEM) and freeze fracture direct imaging (FFDI), (d) determined the characteristic length scales from Small Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS) curves.

Experimental evidence of a transition from a sponge-like to a foam-like nanostructure in water-rich L phases.

Hypothesis: The micrometer-sized gas bubbles of a liquid foam with a dispersed gas phase of > 74 vol% are polyhedral and surrounded by a continuous aqueous phase. The structure of a water-rich microemulsion with a water phase of > 74 vol% normally consists of oil droplets in water or is bicontinuous. We hypothesize that at these high water contents polyhedral water droplets in oil can also exist.

Biotic Yield Losses in the Southern Amazon, Brazil: Making Use of Smartphone-Assisted Plant Disease Diagnosis Data.

Pathogens and animal pests (P&A) are a major threat to global food security as they directly affect the quantity and quality of food. The Southern Amazon, Brazil's largest domestic region for soybean, maize and cotton production, is particularly vulnerable to the outbreak of P&A due to its (sub)tropical climate and intensive farming systems. However, little is known about the spatial distribution of P&A and the related yield losses.

Formation Kinetics of Oil-Rich, Nonionic Microemulsions.

The formation kinetics of oil-rich, nonionic microemulsions were investigated along different mixing pathways using a fast stopped-flow device in combination with the new high-flux small-angle neutron spectrometer D33 (ILL, Grenoble, France). While the kinetics along most pathways were too fast to be resolved, two processes could be detected mixing brine and the binary cyclohexane/C10E5 solution. Here, too, the formation of large water-in-oil droplets was found to be faster than 20 ms and therewith faster than the accessible dead time.

A Journey toward Sulfolane Microemulsions Suggested as Inert, Nonaqueous Reaction Media.

Recently, it turned out that nanostructured reaction media containing highly inert solvents as tetrahydrothiophen-1,1-dioxide (sulfolane) are beneficial for strongly oxidizing or reductive reactions. Because of their ability of solubilizing polar and nonpolar solvents with a large nanostructured interface in particular microemulsions provide such interesting reaction media. Starting from the pseudoternary microemulsion H2O-n-octane-C12E4/C12E5 (polyoxyethylene n-alkyl ether), water was successively replaced by the highly inert tetrahydrothiophen-1,1-dioxide (sulfolane).