Radiocarbon ages of vascular plant wax-derived n-alkanes preserved in well-dated Holocene sediments in an anoxic fjord (Saanich Inlet, Canada) were found to be not only substantially older than the depositional age but increasingly so during the Holocene. Assuming that n-alkanes serve as a proxy for recalcitrant terrigenous organic matter, this indicates that the accumulation of refractory orga...

A recent study of temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) measurements of small linear alkane molecules (n-alkanes, with formula C(N)H(2N+2)) from C(0001) deposited on Pt(111) shows a linear relationship of the desorption energy with increasing n-alkane chain length N. We here present a van der Waals density functional study of the desorption barrier energy of the ten smallest n-alkanes (of car...

The fluorescence decay time of cis-stilbene has been measured in a variety of solvents over a large temperature range. An isoviscosity Arrhenius plot in n-alkanes yields an activation energy of 386±29 em-I. We interpret this result as an upper limit for the cis-stilbene to trans-stilbene barrier in nonpolar solvents. Isoviscosity plots in small alcohols are nonlinear, indicating complicated beh...

The phase behavior of perfluoro-(n)-alkane + (n)-alkane binary mixtures is of particular interest given their unexpected large positive deviations from Raoult’s law. Binary mixtures of perfluoromethane + (n)-alkanes from methane to heptane are studied here, illustrating the continuous change in phase behavior from type II to type III that these systems exhibit. Some symmetrical systems that dis...

A gram-negative aliphatic hydrocarbon-degrading bacterium SJTD-1 isolated from oil-contaminated soil was identified as Pseudomonas aeruginosa by comparative analyses of the 16S rRNA sequence, phenotype, and physiological features. SJTD-1 could efficiently mineralize medium- and long-chain n-alkanes (C12-C30) as its sole carbon source within seven days, showing the most optimal growth on n-hexad...

In order to facilitate the demonstration of the structure dependent stabilizing or destabilizing energy effects characterizing the individual hydrocarbons it is suggested to replace graphite . and hydrogen as reference substances (used in calculating the heats of formation) by the series of n-alkanes. This can be achieved by converting the heats of formation into relative enthalpies (HreJ). The...

We conducted an experiment to quantify the accuracy of methods based on n-alkanes and long-chain fatty alcohols for determining the diet composition of animals grazing complex swards. We cut forage from two indigenous vegetation communities, a Molinia caerulea-dominated grassland and a Calluna vulgaris-dominated dwarf-shrub community, and offered it to mature ewes in different ratios in a zero-...

In a simple phosphate buffer or a sodium chloride solution resting cells of Pseudomonas spec. DSM 2874 produced up to 15 g/l of different rhamnolipids. The rhamnolipid composition of the organic crude extract depended on the temperature during the cultivation and on the C-source. The optimal sodium chloride concentration for rhamnolipid formation was about 100 mM/l and the optimal phosphate buf...

An efficient extraction and analysis method was developed for the isolation and quantification of n-alkanes from bell peppers of different geographical locations. Five extraction techniques, i.e., accelerated solvent extraction (ASE), ball mill extraction, ultrasonication, rinsing, and shaking, were quantitatively compared using gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Rinsing o...

The coverage dependent phase behavior of molecular films of n-alkanes (CH3CHn22CH3 , denote Cn) on mercury was studied for lengths 10<n<50, using surface tensiometry and surface x-ray diffraction methods. In contrast with Langmuir films on water, where roughly surface-normal molecular orientation is invariably found, alkanes on mercury are always oriented surface-parallel, and show no long-rang...