Online asynchronous learning about the environment and sustainable energy

La experiencia docente descrita en este trabajo trata sobre el aprendizaje asíncrono sobre medio ambiente y energías sostenibles mediante el uso de una herramienta en línea. Para llevar a cabo dicha experiencia, se preparó un curso mediante la plataforma Moodle, el cual estaba dividido en 4 bloques temáticos ((I) El Cambio Climático: Una Realidad Cotidiana; (II) Energías Sostenibles; (III) Almacenamiento de Energía Sostenible; (IV) El Camino hacia la Sostenibilidad), cada uno de los cuales estaba formado por una serie de diapositivas con el contenido teórico, acompañado de una introducción audiovisual y material complementario que permitía al alumnado profundizar en los temas abordados. Además, al final del curso el alumnado debía contestar a un cuestionario sobre el contenido teórico del mismo y a una encuesta que recababa su opinión sobre el empleo de entornos de aprendizaje virtual asíncrono. Los resultados obtenidos pusieron de manifiesto el interés del alumnado por el empleo de dichos entornos de aprendizaje y el gran potencial de los mismos, los cuales están en línea con los intereses de las nuevas generaciones.Los autores de este trabajo agradecen al Vicerrectorado de Calidad e Innovación Educativa de la Universidad de Alicante (Programa PENSEMONLINE) por el apoyo económico

Association of Candidate Gene Polymorphisms With Chronic Kidney Disease: Results of a Case-Control Analysis in the Nefrona Cohort

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major risk factor for end-stage renal disease, cardiovascular disease and premature death. Despite classical clinical risk factors for CKD and some genetic risk factors have been identified, the residual risk observed in prediction models is still high. Therefore, new risk factors need to be identified in order to better predict the risk of CKD in the population. Here, we analyzed the genetic association of 79 SNPs of proteins associated with mineral metabolism disturbances with CKD in a cohort that includes 2, 445 CKD cases and 559 controls. Genotyping was performed with matrix assisted laser desorption ionizationtime of flight mass spectrometry. We used logistic regression models considering different genetic inheritance models to assess the association of the SNPs with the prevalence of CKD, adjusting for known risk factors. Eight SNPs (rs1126616, rs35068180, rs2238135, rs1800247, rs385564, rs4236, rs2248359, and rs1564858) were associated with CKD even after adjusting by sex, age and race. A model containing five of these SNPs (rs1126616, rs35068180, rs1800247, rs4236, and rs2248359), diabetes and hypertension showed better performance than models considering only clinical risk factors, significantly increasing the area under the curve of the model without polymorphisms. Furthermore, one of the SNPs (the rs2248359) showed an interaction with hypertension, being the risk genotype affecting only hypertensive patients. We conclude that 5 SNPs related to proteins implicated in mineral metabolism disturbances (Osteopontin, osteocalcin, matrix gla protein, matrix metalloprotease 3 and 24 hydroxylase) are associated to an increased risk of suffering CKD

The role of oxygen heteroatoms in the surface (electro)chemistry of carbon materials

Engineering the surface chemistry of carbon-based materials is of crucial importance in tuning their intrinsic properties, including electrical conductivity, wettability, electroactivity, adsorption potential, reactivity, physical and chemical stability. Intense research has recently focused on understanding the role of surface oxygen functional groups when carbon materials are in contact with an electrolyte or solvent in order to tailor and improve them for technological applications. For this purpose, their synthesis method and/or further oxidation treatments should be carefully selected, since they can substantially influence not only the oxygen content, but also the nature of the oxygen moieties, which could be decisive in determining the surface properties of the resulting material. The combined use of different chemical, spectroscopic and electrochemical techniques, provides unique and reliable information about the contribution of a specific oxygen-containing group in the surface (electro)chemistry of carbon-based materials. This paper provides a discussion of the role of oxygen heteroatoms in the surface electrochemistry of a carbon material as they relate to their influence on both its electroactivity and reactivity.G.A.M. and B.M.S thanks Ministerio de Universidades (grant number: FPU18/05127 and FPU20/03969). The authors would like to thank PID2019-105923RB-I00 and PID2021-123079OB-I00 projects funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and “ERDF A way of making Europe”

Efficient and cost-effective ORR electrocatalysts based on low content transition metals highly dispersed on C3N4/super-activated carbon composites

Oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is one of the most important electrochemical reactions for fuel cells. However, commercial Pt-based catalysts used have important limitations such as their deactivation by carbon monoxide and Pt scarcity. In the present work, small and highly-dispersed copper and iron clusters were anchored onto composite supports based on carbon nitride (C3N4) nanostructures and a highly porous carbon material. Catalysts with a moderate carbon nitride content showed an interesting catalytic behaviour because of the combination of the metallic active sites and the availability of micropores, which play an active role in ORR. The presence of either Fe or Cu in the synthesis affected the structure of the resulting composite materials, as well as their electrocatalytic activity. Copper-based materials showed superior catalytic activity, which is supported by the information obtained from the evaluation of the system using DFT computational calculations.This work was financed by the MCI/AEI/FEDER, UE (RTI2018-095291-B-I00). G.A.M thanks the Research Initiation Scholarship from Vicerrectorado de Investigación y Transferencia de Conocimiento of the University of Alicante and Ministerio de Universidades (grant number: FPU20/03969). M.N.G. thanks the Plan GenT project (CDEIGENT/2018/027) for the financial support

Exploring the effect of surface chemistry and particle size of boron-doped diamond powder as catalyst and catalyst support for the oxygen reduction reaction

The interest for the electrodes based on conductive boron-doped diamond powder (BDDP) is increasing in recent years due to their excellent physical and chemical stability, the wide potential window in both aqueous and organic electrolytes, the relatively large specific surface area, and their versatility in comparison to boron-doped diamond thin film electrodes. These materials have been proposed as alternative cathode catalyst support due to their high corrosion resistance when subjected to the highly positive potentials originated during the start-stop operations in fuel cells, especially in automobiles. In this work, we present three BDDP supports with different particle sizes and different surface oxygen contents as supports of different iron species for oxygen reduction reaction in alkaline solution. BDDP supports were modified with carbon nitride (C3N4) or phthalocyanines (Pc) as anchoring points for iron. The different electrocatalytic performance observed confirmed the strong influence of the surface chemistry of the BDDP supports on the activity of the metallic sites for FePc samples while, for Fe-C3N4 samples, the determining effect was the particle size of the BDDP support. Additionally, DFT calculations were used to obtain some insights about the interaction of the FePc with the diamond surface.The authors would like to thank PID2019-105923RB-I00 and PID2021-123079OB-I00 projects funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and “ERDF A way of making Europe”. B. Martínez-Sánchez and G. Alemany-Molina thank Ministerio de Universidades for the FPU18/05127 and FPU20/03969 grants, respectively

Utilization of Deposited Coke on Zeolites During the Catalytic Cracking of Nitrogen-Containing Polymer for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction

This work focuses on the development of a new method to utilize deposited coke on zeolite catalysts, formed during the plastic waste cracking. Nitrogen-doped carbon catalysts are prepared using nylon-66 and Zn2+ ion-exchanged ZSM-5 zeolites. After the cracking reaction, nitrogen-doped carbon materials are obtained by removing zeolites from zeolite/coke composites using base and acid treatment. The synthesized N-doped carbon using Zn2+ type ZSM-5 zeolites exhibits higher catalytic performance on the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) with an onset potential of 0.95 V (vs RHE) and a half-wave potential of 0.80 V (vs RHE) than that using H+ type ZSM-5 zeolites. The characterization revealed that the evaporation of Zn2+ in zeolites significantly enhanced the porosity of N-doped carbon. Moreover, the aromatization and poly-cyclization reactions promoted the generation of highly active edge Valley-N sites, leading to their outstanding activity on ORR. This work provides new directions for the utilization of deposited coke on zeolites.This work was the result of using research equipment shared in MEXT Project for promoting public utilization of advanced research infrastructure (Program for supporting construction of core facilities) Grant Number JPMXS0441200023. A part of this work was supported by “ARIM Project of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (MEXT), Grant No. JPMXP1222OS0034” at the Research Center for Ultra-High Voltage Electron Microscopy (Nanotechnology Open Facilities) in Osaka University. Part of this work was also supported by PID2021-123079OB-I00 project funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and “ERDF A way of making Europe”

Lab-on-a-screen: Ludificación de experimentos en Química Inorgánica

La presente Red de Innovación Docente trata sobre la elaboración de una herramienta online gracias a la cual el alumnado del Grado de Química pueda adquirir conocimientos y destrezas sobre el material de laboratorio y su clasificación, así como de algunas operaciones básicas de laboratorio de Química Inorgánica. La aplicación está vinculada al Campus Virtual de la Universidad de Alicante y cuenta con cuatro actividades principales, que recogen tres experiencias básicas de laboratorio de Química Inorgánica (i.e. destilación, calentamiento a reflujo y destilación a vacío) y una cuarta actividad de carácter más general, que consiste en identificar correctamente material de laboratorio

Selección y utilización de entornos de aprendizaje virtual en asignaturas de química inorgánica

La experiencia docente desarrollada en este trabajo se basa en la utilización de entornos de aprendizaje virtual en asignaturas del área de Química Inorgánica. Dichos entornos de aprendizaje virtual son una herramienta muy útil para afianzar los conceptos y conocimiento adquiridos durante las clases teóricas y experimentales. El empleo de dichos entornos de aprendizaje ha servido para fomentar el interés de las nuevas generaciones de personas científicas haciendo uso de las Tecnologías del Aprendizaje y el Conocimiento (TAC). En la presente experiencia docente se ha empleado la plataforma desarrollada por la empresa Labster, la cual ofrece un amplio catálogo con experiencias de laboratorio virtual relacionadas con temas generales abordados en los laboratorios de química. En esta experiencia docente se ha empleado dicho entorno de aprendizaje en forma de laboratorio virtual a modo de complemento de las clases prácticas que se imparten en la asignatura de Experimentación en Química Inorgánica, del tercer curso del Grado de Química de la Universidad de Alicante. La experiencia docente se evaluó mediante una encuesta preparada con Google Forms y los resultados han puesto de manifiesto que el alumnado muestra gran motivación por el empleo de entornos de aprendizaje online