In the past decade substantial progress has been made in understanding the organization and biological activity of amphotericin B (AmB) in the presence of sterols in lipid environments. This review concentrates mainly on interactions of AmB with lipids and sterols, AmB channel formation in membranes, AmB aggregation, AmB modifications important for understanding its biological activity, and AmB models explaining its mechanism of action. Most of the reviewed studies concern monolayers at the water–gas interface, monolayers deposited on a solid substrate by use of the Langmuir–Blodgett technique, micelles, vesicles, and multi-bilayers. Liposomal AmB formulations and drug delivery are intentionally omitted, because several reviews dedicated to this subject are already available.

Chitin has become a desirable raw material used in various areas of life. The black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) can be a source of this substance. In the literature, there are many methods of obtaining chitin but there is no one universal method of isolating it. In this publication, we present various procedures for the isolation of chitin from H. illucens pupal exuviae. The obtained chitin variants were characterized using different techniques (optical and confocal microscopy, FTIR, XRD, EDX, thermogravimetric analysis). The tested chitin isolated with an efficiency of 5.69–7.95% was the α form with a crystallinity degree of 60% and maximum degradation temperature of 392 °C. Furthermore, we characterized the nickel ion biosorption process on chitin and proposed the mechanism of this process to be ion exchange and complexation. There have been no such studies thus far on the isolation of chitin from H. illucens exuviae or on the biosorption of nickel ions on this type of biosorbent. The conducted research can be used to develop the application of chitin as a metal biosorbent that can be obtained with relatively high efficiency and good sorption properties.

We have determined the ordering properties of water adsorbed at room temperature on the rock salt (100) surface under four different conditions: ultrahigh vacuum, dry nitrogen atmosphere, 45% and 75% relative humidity. Details of the atomic structure are determined for both sides of the solid–liquid interface. The top most layer of NaCl shows a small relaxation that changes from an expansion to a contraction with increasing humidity. Under all measured conditions water monolayers with different ordering properties are present at the interface. Surprisingly, we find that the amount of ordering in the first layer is increasing with increasing thickness of the water film. At a solid–liquid interface, the ordering appears to be correlated with the solubility.

The interface of Cu(001) electrode surfaces in 10 mM HCl solution was studied by in situ surface x-ray diffraction and density functional theory, focusing on the precise structure of the $c\left(2\times 2\right)$ Cl adlayer formed at positive potentials. Crystal truncation rod measurements in this adsorbate phase at a potential of $-0.20{\text{V}}_{\text{Ag}/\text{AgCl}}$ reveal distinct differences to corresponding data by Tolentino et al. [Surf. Sci. 601, 2962 (2007)] for the $c\left(2\times 2\right)$ Cl structure formed at the Cu(001)-vacuum interface. Although in both environments, the atoms in the second Cu layer exhibit a small vertical corrugation, the sign of this corrugation is reversed. Furthermore, also the Cu-Cl bond distance and the average Cu interlayer spacings at the surface differ. Ab initio calculations performed for this adsorbate system reproduce these effects—specifically the reversal of the subsurface second-layer buckling caused in the presence of coadsorbed water molecules and cations in the outer part of the electrochemical double layer. In addition, studies at more negative potentials reveal a continuous surface phase transition to a disordered Cl adlayer at $-0.62{\text{V}}_{\text{Ag}/\text{AgCl}}$, but indicate a substantial Cl coverage even at the onset of hydrogen evolution.