To satisfy the minimal requirements for life, an information carrying molecular structure must be able to convert resources into building blocks and also be able to adapt to or modify its environment to enhance its own proliferation. Furthermore, new copies of itself must have variable fitness such that evolution is possible. In practical terms, a minimal protocell should be characterized by a ...

We investigate low-temperature epitaxial growth of thin silicon films by HWCVD on Si w1 0 0x substrates and polycrystalline template layers formed by selective nucleation and solid phase epitaxy (SNSPE). We have grown 300-nm thick epitaxial layers at 300 8C on silicon w1 0 0x substrates using a high H :SiH ratio of 70:1. Transmission electron microscopy confirms that the 2 4 films are epitaxial...

To investigate template effect on physicochemical properties of zeolite and enhance the molecular sieving properties, adsorption of methionine amino acid was studied by spectroscopic methods. Four zeolites such as methionine templated analcime, methionine templated zeolite P, N, N-dibenzyl N,N,N,N-tetramethylethylenediamine (DBTMED) templated analcime and free template analcime were synthesized...

Hydrothermally synthesized zinc oxide nanowire arrays have been used as nanostructured acceptors in emerging photovoltaic (PV) devices. The nanoscale dimensions of such arrays allow for enhanced charge extraction from PV active layers, but the device performance critically depends on the nanowire array pitch and alignment. In this study, we templated hydrothermally-grown ZnO nanowire arrays via...

Hollow silica spheres (HSS) with special interior spaces, high specific surface area and excellent adsorption and permeability performance were synthesized via micelle-template method using cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) micelles as soft template and tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) as silica precursor. SEM, TEM, FT-IR, XRD, DLS and BET-BJH were carried out to characterize the morphology and s...

A large variety of different RNA species that are replicated by DNA-dependent RNA polymerase from bacteriophage T7 have been generated by incubating high concentrations of this enzyme with substrate for extended time periods. The products differed from sample to sample in molecular weight and sequence, their chain lengths ranging from 60 to 120. The mechanism of autocatalytic amplification of R...