Engineering serendipity: high-throughput discovery of materials that resist bacterial attachment

Controlling the colonisation of materials by microorganisms is important in a wide range of industries and clinical settings. To date, the underlying mechanisms that govern the interactions of bacteria with material surfaces remain poorly understood, limiting the ab initio design and engineering of biomaterials to control bacterial attachment. Combinatorial approaches involving high-throughput screening have emerged as key tools for identifying materials to control bacterial attachment. The hundreds of different materials assessed using these methods can be carried out with the aid of computational modelling. This approach can develop an understanding of the rules used to predict bacterial attachment to surfaces of non-toxic synthetic materials. Here we outline our view on the state of this field and the challenges and opportunities in this area for the coming years

Galvanomagnetic properties of CdTe below and above the melting point

Temperature dependence of conductivity � and Hall coefficient RH is measured by DC and AC methods at temperatures between 600-1180°C. Two experimental approaches are used. Galvanomagnetic measurements at defined temperature and Cd or Te pressure are performed in solid samples in the whole field of stability of solid in the pressure-temperature (P-T) diagram. Galvanomagnetic measurements define temperature both in solid and in liquid phase. The typical semiconducting character of � and 1/|eRH|, when both parameters increase with temperature, is observed also in the liquid. The negative sign of RH is observed above 600°C within the whole region of stability of solid, both at Cd and at Te saturation, and RH < 0 both in solid and liquid. 1/|eRH| reaches 5 � 1019 cm-3 at 1180°C and the corresponding Hall mobility is 20 cm2/Vs. Three slopes characterize the temperature dependence of a 0.7 eV in the solid CdTe below the melting point 1092°C and 4.6 eV in the liquid phase at 1092°C < T < 1160°C. Above 1160°C, conductivity increases moderately with the slope 0.8 eV. The experimental data for solid CdTe are evaluated by a theoretical model, including electrons from both the central minimum (�-point) and four satellite minima (L-point) of the Brillouin zone. The ab initio results fit our experimental data after small modifications very well