Walther Nernst (1864-1941) was, without a doubt, one of the most remarkable physicists of the early 20th century. His main accomplishments were in the field of physical chemistry, a discipline he founded together with other well-known scientists, including J.H. van’t Hoff, W. Ostwald and S. Arrhenius. His most famous contribution to physics was the so-called third law of thermodynamics, for whi...

Whenever a spatially inhomogeneous electrolyte, composed of ions with different mobilities, is allowed to diffuse, charge separation and an electric potential difference is created. Such potential differences across very thin membranes (e.g. biomembranes) are often interpreted using the steady state Goldman equation, which is usually derived by assuming a spatially constant electric field. Thro...

ion channels are naturally occurring pores through the proteins that regulate the passage of ions and thus maintain the concentration of ions inside and outside the cell. the ion channels control many physiological functions and they can show selectivity for a specific ion. ion channels are mostly observed in nerve cells and muscle cells. the influx of ions into cells can be regulated by a gate...

Spin caloritronics refers to research efforts in spintronics when a heat current plays a role. In this review, we start out by reviewing the predictions that can be drawn from the thermodynamics of irreversible processes. This serves as a conceptual framework in which to analyze the interplay of charge, spin and heat transport. This formalism predicts tensorial relations between vectorial quant...