A supercooled liquid is said to have a kinetic spinodal if a temperature Tsp exists below which the liquid relaxation time exceeds the crystal nucleation time. We revisit classical nucleation theory taking into account the viscoelastic response of the liquid to the formation of crystal nuclei and find that the kinetic spinodal is strongly influenced by elastic effects. We introduce a dimensionless parameter lambda, which is essentially the ratio between the infinite frequency shear modulus and the enthalpy of fusion of the crystal. In systems where lambda is larger than a critical value lambda(c) the metastability limit is totally suppressed, independently of the surface tension. On the other hand, if lambda
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.115702 DOI Listing Publication Analysis
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J Phys Chem Lett
December 2024
State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, College of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Zhejiang University, 866 Yuhangtang Road, Hangzhou 310058, China.
Comonomer defects can induce semicrystalline polymers to form unique crystalline structures (., defect crystals), which can greatly influence the materials' physical properties. However, the formation mechanism and structural evolution of defect polymer crystals are not yet well understood.
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December 2024
Duke University, Duke Human Vaccine Institute, Durham NC 27710, USA.
(HNVs), a genus within the family, includes the highly virulent Nipah and Hendra viruses that cause yearly reoccurring outbreaks of deadly disease. Recent discoveries of several new species, including the zoonotic Langya virus, have revealed much higher antigenic diversity than currently characterized. Here, to explore the limits of structural and antigenic variation in HNVs, we construct an expanded, antigenically diverse panel of HNV fusion (F) and attachment (G) glycoproteins from 56 unique HNV strains that better reflects global HNV diversity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnal Chem
December 2024
State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Nano-Biotechnology Key Lab of Hebei Province, College of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, China.
Microelectrode- and nanoelectrode-based electrochemistry has become a powerful tool for the in situ monitoring of various biomolecules in vivo. However, two challenges limit the application of micro- and nanoelectrodes: the difficulty of highly sensitive detection of nonelectroactive molecules and the specific detection of target molecules in complex biological environments. Herein, we propose an electrochemical microsensor based on an entropy-driven multipedal DNA walker for the highly sensitive and selective detection of ATP.
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December 2024
Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Controlling the functional properties of quantum materials with light has emerged as a frontier of condensed-matter physics, leading to the discovery of various light-induced phases of matter, such as superconductivity, ferroelectricity, magnetism and charge density waves. However, in most cases, the photoinduced phases return to equilibrium on ultrafast timescales after the light is turned off, limiting their practical applications. Here we use intense terahertz pulses to induce a metastable magnetization with a remarkably long lifetime of more than 2.
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December 2024
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA.
The unique layer-stacking in two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals materials facilitates the formation of nearly degenerate phases of matter and opens novel routes for the design of low-power, reconfigurable functional materials. Electrochemical ion intercalation between stacked layers offers a promising approach to stabilize bulk metastable phases and to explore the effects of extreme carrier doping and strain. However, in situ characterization methods to study the structural evolution and dynamical functional properties of these intercalated materials remains limited.
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