Anaerobic degradation of organic carbon supports uncultured microbial populations in estuarine sediments.

Background: A large proportion of prokaryotic microbes in marine sediments remains uncultured, hindering our understanding of their ecological functions and metabolic features. Recent environmental metagenomic studies suggested that many of these uncultured microbes contribute to the degradation of organic matter, accompanied by acetogenesis, but the supporting experimental evidence is limited.

Results: Estuarine sediments were incubated with different types of organic matters under anaerobic conditions, and the increase of uncultured bacterial populations was monitored.

Ultranarrow-bandwidth planar hot electron photodetector based on coupled dual Tamm plasmons.

Hot electron photodetectors based on a planar structure of metal-insulator /semiconductor-metal (MIM/MSM) have attracted much attention due to the easy and cheap fabrication process and the possibility of detecting light with energy lower than the semiconductor band gap. For this type of device, however, hot electron photocurrent is restricted by the trade-off between the light absorption and the internal quantum efficiency (IQE) since high absorption usually occurs within thick metals and the IQE in this case is usually low. The trade-off is circumvented in this paper by proposing a new type of hot electron photodetector based on planar MIM structure and coupled dual Tamm plasmons (TPs), which has a structure of one-dimensional photonic crystals (1DPCs)/Au/TiO/Au/1DPCs.

Highly Efficient and High Peak Transmittance Colorful Semitransparent Organic Solar Cells with Hybrid-Electrode-Mirror Microcavity Structure.

Microcavity is an efficient approach to manufacture colorful semitransparent organic solar cells (ST-OSCs) with high color purity by tailoring the transmission spectrum to narrow peaks. However, in this type of colorful semitransparent devices, high power conversion efficiency (PCE) and high peak transmittance are not yet simultaneously achieved. This paper proposes a new type of microcavity structure to achieve colorful ST-OSCs with both high PCE and high peak transmittance, in which a hybrid Au/Ag electrode is used as a mirror and WO is used as a spacer layer.

Growth of sedimentary on lignin as an energy source.

Members of the archaeal phylum are among the most abundant microorganisms on Earth. Although versatile metabolic capabilities such as acetogenesis, methanogenesis, and fermentation have been suggested for bathyarchaeotal members, no direct confirmation of these metabolic functions has been achieved through growth of in the laboratory. Here we demonstrate, on the basis of gene-copy numbers and probing of archaeal lipids, the growth of subgroup Bathy-8 in enrichments of estuarine sediments with the biopolymer lignin.

Difference of nitrogen-cycling microbes between shallow bay and deep-sea sediments in the South China Sea.

In marine sediments, microorganisms are known to play important roles in nitrogen cycling; however, the composition and quantity of microbes taking part in each process of nitrogen cycling are currently unclear. In this study, two different types of marine sediment samples (shallow bay and deep-sea sediments) in the South China Sea (SCS) were selected to investigate the microbial community involved in nitrogen cycling. The abundance and composition of prokaryotes and seven key functional genes involved in five processes of the nitrogen cycle [nitrogen fixation, nitrification, denitrification, dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA), and anaerobic ammonia oxidation (anammox)] were presented.