Morphology of supported polymer electrolyte ultra-thin films: a numerical study

Morphology of polymer electrolytes membranes (PEM), e.g., Nafion, inside PEM fuel cell catalyst layers has significant impact on the electrochemical activity and transport phenomena that determine cell performance. In those regions, Nafion can be found as an ultra-thin film, coating the catalyst and the catalyst support surfaces. The impact of the hydrophilic/hydrophobic character of these surfaces on the structural formation of the films has not been sufficiently explored yet. Here, we report about Molecular Dynamics simulation investigation of the substrate effects on the ionomer ultra-thin film morphology at different hydration levels. We use a mean-field-like model we introduced in previous publications for the interaction of the hydrated Nafion ionomer with a substrate, characterized by a tunable degree of hydrophilicity. We show that the affinity of the substrate with water plays a crucial role in the molecular rearrangement of the ionomer film, resulting in completely different morphologies. Detailed structural description in different regions of the film shows evidences of strongly heterogeneous behavior. A qualitative discussion of the implications of our observations on the PEMFC catalyst layer performance is finally proposed

Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background: In an era of shifting global agendas and expanded emphasis on non-communicable diseases and injuries along with communicable diseases, sound evidence on trends by cause at the national level is essential. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) provides a systematic scientific assessment of published, publicly available, and contributed data on incidence, prevalence, and mortality for a mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive list of diseases and injuries. Methods: GBD estimates incidence, prevalence, mortality, years of life lost (YLLs), years lived with disability (YLDs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) due to 369 diseases and injuries, for two sexes, and for 204 countries and territories. Input data were extracted from censuses, household surveys, civil registration and vital statistics, disease registries, health service use, air pollution monitors, satellite imaging, disease notifications, and other sources. Cause-specific death rates and cause fractions were calculated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model and spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression. Cause-specific deaths were adjusted to match the total all-cause deaths calculated as part of the GBD population, fertility, and mortality estimates. Deaths were multiplied by standard life expectancy at each age to calculate YLLs. A Bayesian meta-regression modelling tool, DisMod-MR 2.1, was used to ensure consistency between incidence, prevalence, remission, excess mortality, and cause-specific mortality for most causes. Prevalence estimates were multiplied by disability weights for mutually exclusive sequelae of diseases and injuries to calculate YLDs. We considered results in the context of the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a composite indicator of income per capita, years of schooling, and fertility rate in females younger than 25 years. Uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated for every metric using the 25th and 975th ordered 1000 draw values of the posterior distribution. Findings: Global health has steadily improved over the past 30 years as measured by age-standardised DALY rates. After taking into account population growth and ageing, the absolute number of DALYs has remained stable. Since 2010, the pace of decline in global age-standardised DALY rates has accelerated in age groups younger than 50 years compared with the 1990–2010 time period, with the greatest annualised rate of decline occurring in the 0–9-year age group. Six infectious diseases were among the top ten causes of DALYs in children younger than 10 years in 2019: lower respiratory infections (ranked second), diarrhoeal diseases (third), malaria (fifth), meningitis (sixth), whooping cough (ninth), and sexually transmitted infections (which, in this age group, is fully accounted for by congenital syphilis; ranked tenth). In adolescents aged 10–24 years, three injury causes were among the top causes of DALYs: road injuries (ranked first), self-harm (third), and interpersonal violence (fifth). Five of the causes that were in the top ten for ages 10–24 years were also in the top ten in the 25–49-year age group: road injuries (ranked first), HIV/AIDS (second), low back pain (fourth), headache disorders (fifth), and depressive disorders (sixth). In 2019, ischaemic heart disease and stroke were the top-ranked causes of DALYs in both the 50–74-year and 75-years-and-older age groups. Since 1990, there has been a marked shift towards a greater proportion of burden due to YLDs from non-communicable diseases and injuries. In 2019, there were 11 countries where non-communicable disease and injury YLDs constituted more than half of all disease burden. Decreases in age-standardised DALY rates have accelerated over the past decade in countries at the lower end of the SDI range, while improvements have started to stagnate or even reverse in countries with higher SDI. Interpretation: As disability becomes an increasingly large component of disease burden and a larger component of health expenditure, greater research and developm nt investment is needed to identify new, more effective intervention strategies. With a rapidly ageing global population, the demands on health services to deal with disabling outcomes, which increase with age, will require policy makers to anticipate these changes. The mix of universal and more geographically specific influences on health reinforces the need for regular reporting on population health in detail and by underlying cause to help decision makers to identify success stories of disease control to emulate, as well as opportunities to improve. Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 licens

Global age-sex-specific fertility, mortality, healthy life expectancy (HALE), and population estimates in 204 countries and territories, 1950-2019 : a comprehensive demographic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background: Accurate and up-to-date assessment of demographic metrics is crucial for understanding a wide range of social, economic, and public health issues that affect populations worldwide. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 produced updated and comprehensive demographic assessments of the key indicators of fertility, mortality, migration, and population for 204 countries and territories and selected subnational locations from 1950 to 2019. Methods: 8078 country-years of vital registration and sample registration data, 938 surveys, 349 censuses, and 238 other sources were identified and used to estimate age-specific fertility. Spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression (ST-GPR) was used to generate age-specific fertility rates for 5-year age groups between ages 15 and 49 years. With extensions to age groups 10–14 and 50–54 years, the total fertility rate (TFR) was then aggregated using the estimated age-specific fertility between ages 10 and 54 years. 7417 sources were used for under-5 mortality estimation and 7355 for adult mortality. ST-GPR was used to synthesise data sources after correction for known biases. Adult mortality was measured as the probability of death between ages 15 and 60 years based on vital registration, sample registration, and sibling histories, and was also estimated using ST-GPR. HIV-free life tables were then estimated using estimates of under-5 and adult mortality rates using a relational model life table system created for GBD, which closely tracks observed age-specific mortality rates from complete vital registration when available. Independent estimates of HIV-specific mortality generated by an epidemiological analysis of HIV prevalence surveys and antenatal clinic serosurveillance and other sources were incorporated into the estimates in countries with large epidemics. Annual and single-year age estimates of net migration and population for each country and territory were generated using a Bayesian hierarchical cohort component model that analysed estimated age-specific fertility and mortality rates along with 1250 censuses and 747 population registry years. We classified location-years into seven categories on the basis of the natural rate of increase in population (calculated by subtracting the crude death rate from the crude birth rate) and the net migration rate. We computed healthy life expectancy (HALE) using years lived with disability (YLDs) per capita, life tables, and standard demographic methods. Uncertainty was propagated throughout the demographic estimation process, including fertility, mortality, and population, with 1000 draw-level estimates produced for each metric. Findings: The global TFR decreased from 2·72 (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 2·66–2·79) in 2000 to 2·31 (2·17–2·46) in 2019. Global annual livebirths increased from 134·5 million (131·5–137·8) in 2000 to a peak of 139·6 million (133·0–146·9) in 2016. Global livebirths then declined to 135·3 million (127·2–144·1) in 2019. Of the 204 countries and territories included in this study, in 2019, 102 had a TFR lower than 2·1, which is considered a good approximation of replacement-level fertility. All countries in sub-Saharan Africa had TFRs above replacement level in 2019 and accounted for 27·1% (95% UI 26·4–27·8) of global livebirths. Global life expectancy at birth increased from 67·2 years (95% UI 66·8–67·6) in 2000 to 73·5 years (72·8–74·3) in 2019. The total number of deaths increased from 50·7 million (49·5–51·9) in 2000 to 56·5 million (53·7–59·2) in 2019. Under-5 deaths declined from 9·6 million (9·1–10·3) in 2000 to 5·0 million (4·3–6·0) in 2019. Global population increased by 25·7%, from 6·2 billion (6·0–6·3) in 2000 to 7·7 billion (7·5–8·0) in 2019. In 2019, 34 countries had negative natural rates of increase; in 17 of these, the population declined because immigration was not sufficient to counteract the negative rate of decline. Globally, HALE increased from 58·6 years (56·1–60·8) in 2000 to 63·5 years (60·8–66·1) in 2019. HALE increased in 202 of 204 countries and territories between 2000 and 2019

Etude computationnelle de la formation d'un film ultra-mince de Nafion à l'intérieur d'une couche catalytique de PEMFC

Nafion inside Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) catalyst layers can be found as an ultra-thin film coating the catalyst and the catalyst support surfaces. Nafion morphology shows to be strongly sensitive to the type of material where the film is deposited, especially the hydrophobic/philic character of these materials. Our work consists in performing a complete investigation of the substrate hydrophilicity effects on the physical properties of Nafion ultra-thin film at different hydration levels. We investigate in a unique framework a variety of environments peculiar of the PEMFC catalyst layer, ranging from hydrophobic (carbon) to hydrophilic (platinum) substrates. The numerical method chosen for this work is classical Molecular Dynamics simulations. The well-thermalized thin-film configurations were described in details in terms of their structural and dynamical properties.Le Nafion dans la couche catalytique des PEMFCs peut former un revêtement de film ultra-mince enrobant la surface du catalyseur et ses supports. La morphologie du Nafion se révèle être très sensibles à la nature du matériau sur lequel le film est déposé, et en particulier le caractère hydrophobe/phile de ces matériaux. Notre travail consiste à effectuer une enquête complète sur les effets hydrophiles du substrat sur les propriétés physiques du film ultra-mince de Nafion à des niveaux différents d'hydratation. Par conséquent, nous étudions selon un cadre unique une variété d'environnements spécifiques de la couche du catalyseur de la PEMFC, pouvant aller d'un substrat hydrophobe (carbone) à hydrophile (platine). La méthode numérique choisie pour ce travail est une simulation par Dynamique Moléculaire classique. Les configurations de films ultra-minces correctement thermalisés ont été décrites en détail en fonction de leurs propriétés structurales et dynamiques

Computational studies of the formation of Nafion ultra-thin films inside PEMFC catalyst layer

Le Nafion dans la couche catalytique des PEMFCs peut former un revêtement de film ultra-mince enrobant la surface du catalyseur et ses supports. La morphologie du Nafion se révèle être très sensibles à la nature du matériau sur lequel le film est déposé, et en particulier le caractère hydrophobe/phile de ces matériaux. Notre travail consiste à effectuer une enquête complète sur les effets hydrophiles du substrat sur les propriétés physiques du film ultra-mince de Nafion à des niveaux différents d'hydratation. Par conséquent, nous étudions selon un cadre unique une variété d'environnements spécifiques de la couche du catalyseur de la PEMFC, pouvant aller d'un substrat hydrophobe (carbone) à hydrophile (platine). La méthode numérique choisie pour ce travail est une simulation par Dynamique Moléculaire classique. Les configurations de films ultra-minces correctement thermalisés ont été décrites en détail en fonction de leurs propriétés structurales et dynamiques.Nafion inside Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) catalyst layers can be found as an ultra-thin film coating the catalyst and the catalyst support surfaces. Nafion morphology shows to be strongly sensitive to the type of material where the film is deposited, especially the hydrophobic/philic character of these materials. Our work consists in performing a complete investigation of the substrate hydrophilicity effects on the physical properties of Nafion ultra-thin film at different hydration levels. We investigate in a unique framework a variety of environments peculiar of the PEMFC catalyst layer, ranging from hydrophobic (carbon) to hydrophilic (platinum) substrates. The numerical method chosen for this work is classical Molecular Dynamics simulations. The well-thermalized thin-film configurations were described in details in terms of their structural and dynamical properties

Schwarzites for natural gas storage: a grand - canonical Monte Carlo study

FAPESP - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULOThe 3D porous carbon-based structures called Schwarzites have been recently a subject of renewed interest due to the possibility of being synthesized in the near future. These structures exhibit negatively curvature topologies with tuneable porous sizes and shapes, which make them natural candidates for applications such as CO2 capture, gas storage and separation. Nevertheless, the adsorption properties of these materials have not been fully investigated. Following this motivation, we have carried out Grand-Canonical Monte Carlo simulations to study the adsorption of small molecules such as CO2, CO, CH4, N-2 and H-2, in a series of Schwarzites structures. Here, we present our preliminary results on natural gas adsorptive capacity in association with analyses of the guest-host interaction strengths. Our results show that Schwarzites P7par, P8bal and IWPg are the most promising structures with very high CO2 and CH4 adsorption capacity and low saturation pressure (<1bar) at ambient temperature. The P688 is interesting for H-2 storage due to its exceptional high H-2 adsorption enthalpy value of -19kJ/mol.31-2115120FAPESP - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULOFAPESP - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO2013/08293-72015/14703-

Correction to “Morphology of Supported Polymer Electrolyte Ultrathin Films: A Numerical Study”

International audienc