ACS Omega

We report a systematic study on the effect of incorporating zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods into the nematic liquid crystal 4-n-pentyl-4′-cyanobiphenyl (5CB), a room-temperature nematic with positive dielectric anisotropy and a dominant longitudinal dipole moment. Owing to their anisotropic geometry, ZnO nanorods couple effectively with the nematic director and modify the dielectric relaxation dynamics…

Background: Among natural compounds suggested as antimicrobials to overcome the increasing phenomenon of multidrug resistance (MDR), resveratrol (3,5,4′-trihydroxystilbene; RSV), a phytoalexin commonly found in food and drinks, can be considered a valid alternative. Despite its potentially useful antimicrobial action, orally administered RSV fails in efficacy due to several drawbacks (e.g., first…

Silk fibroin films offer tunable mechanical properties, yet the structural origins of this tunability are incompletely understood. Here, we show how solvent choice and post-treatment govern the mechanics of silk fibroin films by combining solid-state NMR relaxation measurements (13C T1/T1ρ; 1H T1/T1ρ), X-ray diffraction, and TG-DTA analyses. Formic acid-derived films exhibited a 6-fold higher Sil…

Understanding and controlling the thermodynamic behavior of molten fluoride salts is critical for their deployment in advanced energy systems, including molten salt reactors. Self-consistent Gibbs energy functions were developed to describe the thermochemical behavior of the fission product SmF3 with LiF, NaF, and KF using the modified quasi-chemical model in the quadruplet approximation. Enthalp…

Wildfire events have emerged as a persistent threat to viticulture worldwide, creating an urgent need for effective mitigation and preventative practices. This study investigated the use of spray coatings onto grape surfaces to form a physical barrier against smoke-derived volatile phenols. The four film formulations compared included cellulose nanofiber, β-cyclodextrin, chitosan, and a mix of β-…

Nickel (Ni) plays a central role in plant nitrogen (N) metabolism, yet the long-term physiological impact of nanostructured Ni fertilizers on soybean (Glycine max L.) remains insufficiently characterized. This study assessed the effects of Ni seed treatment and foliar application, using macro-, micro-, and nanosized Ni sources, on soybean cv. “IPRO Flecha” N metabolism and biological nitrogen fix…

Attosecond science is an emerging topic, where chirality plays a central role. Here, we demonstrate subjecting iodoacetylene, a geometrically achiral molecule, to a pair of simulated nonionizing ultrafast circularly polarized laser pulses at the highest time resolution to date, by 2 orders of magnitude (3.87 attoseconds), of the continuously valued S and R electronic chirality assignments. We par…