Gravity-driven hydromagnetic flow of couple stress hybrid nanofluid with homogenous-heterogeneous reactions

This investigation describes the hydromagnetic flow of gravity-driven couple stress hybrid nanofluid past a heated plate. The carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are used to characterize the hybrid nanofluid. The heated plate is placed vertically with an application of homogenous-heterogeneous reactions to the assumed flow system. The homogeneous reaction governs by isothermal cubic autocatalytic kinetics while the heterogeneous reaction governs by the first order kinetics. For current study the couple stress hybrid nanofluid is presumed to be conducted electrically with impact of non-uniform magnetic effects. An appropriate set of dimensionless quantities has employed to governing equations and then has solved by homotopy analysis method. The influence of emerging parameters encountered in this work has discussed in detail with the help of graphs. In this study it has examined that, flow of fluid reduces with upsurge in magnetic parameter and volumetric concentrations, whereas thermal and concentration characteristics augment with increase in volumetric concentrations. Moreover, growth in Prandtl number leads to a reduction in thermal characteristics and growth in Schmidt number result a reduction in concentration profile. The impact of various emerging parameters has also studied numerically upon physical quantities. It has established that, with augmentation in values of buoyancy parameter there is a growth in the values of skin friction. A comparison has also carried out between current and established results with a fine agreement in both results.

Selection from a pool of self-assembling lipid replicators

Replication and compartmentalization are fundamental to living systems and may have played important roles in life’s origins. Selection in compartmentalized autocatalytic systems might provide a way for evolution to occur and for life to arise from non-living systems. Herein we report selection in a system of self-reproducing lipids where a predominant species can emerge from a pool of competitors. The lipid replicators are metastable and their out-of-equilibrium population can be sustained by feeding the system with starting materials. Phase separation is crucial for selective surfactant formation as well as autocatalytic kinetics; indeed, no selection is observed when all reacting species are dissolved in the same phase. Selectivity is attributed to a kinetically controlled process where the rate of monomer formation determines which replicator building blocks are the fittest. This work reveals how kinetics of a phase-separated autocatalytic reaction may be used to control the population of out-of-equilibrium replicators in time.

The chemical mechanism of β-haematin formation studied by Mössbauer spectroscopy

Spontaneous formation of β-haematin (malaria pigment) from haematin in acetate solution follows pseudo-zero-order and not autocatalytic kinetics. Acetate appears to facilitate the reaction by solubilizing the haematin and acting as a phase-transfer catalyst, a role which, in vivo, could be fulfilled by carboxylic acids or amino acids.