Thermodynamics articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    While clusters in calcium orthophosphate nucleation have long been known, their speciation and mechanistic pathways to hydroxyapatite remain debated. Here the authors report a revision of ion association in the calcium phosphate system and explore the consequences thereof on the early stages of phase separation.

    • David P. McDonogh
    • , Julian D. Gale
    •  & Denis Gebauer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Inertial active matter can self-organize into coexisting phases that feature different temperatures, but experimental realizations are limited. Here, the authors report the coexistence of hot liquid and cold gas states in mixtures of overdamped active and inertial passive Brownian particles, giving a broader relevance.

    • Lukas Hecht
    • , Iris Dong
    •  & Benno Liebchen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Strong light-matter interactions in optical microcavities can be used to control molecular kinetic and thermodynamic phenomena. Here, the authors introduce a theory that describes the nonperturbative effects of infrared microcavities on chemical equilibria.

    • Kaihong Sun
    •  & Raphael F. Ribeiro

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Two small-molecule drugs, risdiplam and branaplam, have been developed for treating spinal muscular atrophy. Here the authors develop quantitative modeling methods for the sequence-specific and concentration-dependent effects of these and other splice-modifying drugs.

    • Yuma Ishigami
    • , Mandy S. Wong
    •  & Justin B. Kinney

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quantum oscillations serve as an important probe of electronic structure of quantum materials. Yang et al. study quantum oscillations in the electronic specific heat of natural graphite, unveiling a double-peak structure absent in commonly used theory, and show its utility in determining the Landé g-factors.

    • Zhuo Yang
    • , Benoît Fauqué
    •  & Yoshimitsu Kohama

  • Article
    | Open Access

    High-temperature behaviour of thermopower is special in cuprates, allowing for theory-experiment comparisons. Wang et al. use quantum Monte Carlo to compute high temperature thermopower in the Hubbard model, demonstrating qualitative and quantitative agreement with experiments across multiple cuprate families.

    • Wen O. Wang
    • , Jixun K. Ding
    •  & Thomas P. Devereaux

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The trade-off between power and efficiency in designing heat engines has remained unsolved for the last two centuries. The authors overcome this trade-off in a colloidal Stirling engine by electrophoretically inducing system-reservoir interactions to enhance heat transfer during an isochoric process.

    • Sudeesh Krishnamurthy
    • , Rajesh Ganapathy
    •  & A. K. Sood

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A rational design of deep eutectic solvents (DESs) is hindered because fundamental DES components, such as choline chloride (ChCl), decompose before melting. Here authors determine the melting properties of ChCl, unveiling ionic plastic crystals as a platform for DESs that meet modern sustainability, health, and safety requirements.

    • Adriaan van den Bruinhorst
    • , Jocasta Avila
    •  & Margarida Costa Gomes

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Boiling, despite being a well-known phenomenon still lacks an understanding of its multiscale and non-equilibrium nature. Using the stochastic mesoscale model based on fluctuating hydrodynamics and diffuse interface approach Gallo et al. describe the process of boiling from nucleation to macroscopic bubble dynamics.

    • Mirko Gallo
    • , Francesco Magaletti
    •  & Carlo Massimo Casciola

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model is a paradigmatic model in the field of complex disordered systems such as spin glasses and neural networks. Here the authors study the stochastic thermodynamics of an asymmetric version of the model by using a path integral method and provide exact solutions for the entropy production.

    • Miguel Aguilera
    • , Masanao Igarashi
    •  & Hideaki Shimazaki

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Lithium graphite intercalation compounds are important for developing Li-ion batteries. Here authors simulate the interaction of high energy X-rays with Li ions intercalated in graphite and show that Li ions behave in an unexpected non-Gaussian fashion, leading to increasingly chaotic behaviour as the ion concentration reduces.

    • Sasawat Jamnuch
    •  & Tod A. Pascal

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Supercritical fluids have local density inhomogeneities caused by molecular clusters. Authors show that the molecular interactions of supercritical fluids, associated with localized clusters, obey complex network dynamics that can be represented by a hidden-variable network model.

    • Filip Simeski
    •  & Matthias Ihme

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Based on fundamental thermodynamics, traditional electronic computers, which operate serially, require more energy per computation the faster they operate. Here, the authors show that the energy cost per operation of a parallel computer can be kept very small.

    • Michael Konopik
    • , Till Korten
    •  & Heiner Linke

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Viable methods for the production of ultrastable glasses are much sought after. A potential approach for creating bulk ultrastable glasses, based on random particle bonding scenarios, is now numerically investigated. The method is expected to be applicable to molecular and colloidal glasses.

    • Misaki Ozawa
    • , Yasutaka Iwashita
    •  & Francesco Zamponi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Some quantum spin models provide a condensed-matter realization of confinement, and previous work has shown that confinement affects the way they thermalize. Here the authors demonstrate for a many-body model with confinement that thermalization dynamics occurs in multiple stages, starting with a prethermal state.

    • Stefan Birnkammer
    • , Alvise Bastianello
    •  & Michael Knap

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Investigations of quantum thermal machines and Liouvillian exceptional points have rarely crossed each other. Here, the authors realize experimentally a quantum Otto engine using a single trapped ion, and show that crossing a Liouvillian exceptional point during the cycle increases the engine performance.

    • J.-W. Zhang
    • , J.-Q. Zhang
    •  & M. Feng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The nuclear pore complex (NPC) barrier is a selective phase assembled from disordered but cohesive FG domains. The authors provide a thermodynamic description of an FG phase that is ultimately simplified and yet closely recapitulates NPC transport selectivity.

    • Sheung Chun Ng
    •  & Dirk Görlich

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    While passive solar-driven evaporative systems promise higher economic and environmental sustainability in water treatment, many challenges remain for their effective adoption. Here, the author identifies three main pillars and corresponding issues which future research should focus on to bring these technologies to the next maturity level.

    • Eliodoro Chiavazzo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Amyloid fibrils of β2-microglobulin (β2m) can cause dialysis-related amyloidosis. Here, the authors show that a decrease in serum albumin levels in long-term dialysis deteriorates the inhibitory effects of serum milieux on supersaturation-limited amyloid formation of β2m, suggesting that macromolecular crowding protects the onset of amyloidosis.

    • Kichitaro Nakajima
    • , Keiichi Yamaguchi
    •  & Yuji Goto

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Contrary to states of thermal equilibrium, there is no universal characterization of non-equilibrium steady states displaying constant flows of energy and/or matter. Here, the authors make progress in this direction by deriving an emergent and stricter version of the second law of thermodynamics.

    • José Nahuel Freitas
    •  & Massimiliano Esposito

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The power generated by an ideal thermal machine cannot exceed the Carnot limit in classical physics. Here, Ryu et al., demonstrate that a periodically driven quantum chiral conductor can exhibit efficiencies beyond the Carnot limit while the second law of thermodynamics is preserved.

    • Sungguen Ryu
    • , Rosa López
    •  & David Sánchez

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Investigating and tailoring the thermodynamic properties of different fluids is crucial to many applied fields such as energy and refrigeration cycles. Here, authors use multistable, gas filled, particles suspension to enhance the macro-properties of thermodynamic fluids.

    • Ofek Peretz
    • , Ezra Ben Abu
    •  & Amir D. Gat

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quantum heat transport devices are currently intensively studied. Here, the authors report the photonic heat transport modulated by superconducting qubit in a three-terminal device. Flux dependent heat power correlates with microwave measurements.

    • Azat Gubaydullin
    • , George Thomas
    •  & Jukka P. Pekola

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There are few well-balanced heat storage materials up to date. Here, the authors report that δ-type K0.33MnO2 ∙ nH2O can be an excellently balanced heat storage material exhibiting a “water-intercalation mechanism”.

    • Takuya Hatakeyama
    • , Norihiko L. Okamoto
    •  & Tetsu Ichitsubo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Liquid−liquid transitions (LLTs) have been reported for some molecular systems but are difficult to observe under high pressure conditions. Here the authors report and characterize a first-order LLT in a series of ionic liquids containing the trihexyl(tetradecyl)phosphonium cation and anions of different sizes and shapes, using calorimetric and dielectric measurements.

    • Zaneta Wojnarowska
    • , Shinian Cheng
    •  & Marian Paluch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Thermal metamaterials can be used to manipulate heat flow but experimental fabrication is challenging. Here, the authors report robustly printable freeform thermal metamaterials to tackle this challenge by topology optimization and 3D printing.

    • Wei Sha
    • , Mi Xiao
    •  & Run Hu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Superconductivity reported in metals driven away from equilibrium via optical pumping has been proposed to arise from nonlinear coupling between electrons and optically excited phonons. The authors use an exact approach to show that here, disorder, which disfavors superconductivity, emerges even though the system is translationally invariant.

    • John Sous
    • , Benedikt Kloss
    •  & Andrew J. Millis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Micro scale heat engines may be subjected to quite intriguing scenarios. Roy et al superimpose artificial random kicks on an optically trapped colloid, emulating a memoryless non-gaussian reservoir that markedly alters the conditions under which the engine performs at optimum efficiency.

    • Niloyendu Roy
    • , Nathan Leroux
    •  & Rajesh Ganapathy

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In their supercritical state simple fluids are generally thought to assume a homogeneous phase throughout. Lee et al. find that liquid droplets temporarily formed in a supercritical background after sub-critical injection can survive for a surprisingly long time.

    • Seungtaek Lee
    • , Juho Lee
    •  & Gunsu Yun

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