Newly designed single-ion conducting polymer electrolytes enabling advanced Li-metal solid-state batteries

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Protic Ionic Liquids Based Crosslinked Polymer Electrolytes: A New Class of Solid Electrolytes for Energy Storage Devices

Herein, the preparation of an innovative crosslinked polymer electrolyte (PEO_HPyr) encompassing protic ionic liquids (PILs) displaying high ionic conductivity, wide thermal, and electrochemical stability is reported, thus suitable for use in safe energy storage devices. The first example of an all‐solid‐state electrochemical double layer capacitor (EDLC) containing a PEO_HPyr‐based electrolyte is presented, which shows high performance at ambient temperature and exceptional stability. Furthermore, the first example of a PIL‐based lab‐scale lithium‐metal cell with lithium iron phosphate cathodes is also presented, which provides almost full capacity (i.e., 150 mAh g−1 at C/20) and highly reversible cycling at ambient conditions and different current rates. The excellent results obtained clearly demonstrate that PIL‐based crosslinked polymer electrolytes represent a new and very interesting class of solid electrolytes for energy storage devices

Enhanced Electrochemical Performance of Hybrid Solid Polymer Electrolytes Encompassing Viologen for All-Solid-State Lithium Polymer Batteries

Hybrid solid polymer electrolytes (HSPE) comprising poly(ethyleneoxide) (PEO), LiTFSI, barium titanate (BaTiO3), and viologenare prepared by a facile hot press. The physical properties of theHSPE membranes are studied by using small-angle and wide-angle X-rayscattering, thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry,and tensile strength. The prepared hybrid solid polymer electrolytesare also investigated by means of ionic conductivity and transportnumber measurements. The employed analyses collectively reveal thateach additive in the PEO host contributes to a specific property:LiTFSI is essential in providing ionic species, while BaTiO3 and viologen enhance the thermal stability, ionic conductivity,and transport number. The enhanced value in the Li+-transportnumber of HSPE are presumably attributed to the electrostatic attractionof TFSI anions and the positive charges of viologen. Synergistically,the added BaTiO3 and viologen improve the electrochemicalproperties of HSPE for the applications in all-solid-state-lithiumpolymer batteries

Increased nutritional value in food crops

Modern agriculture and horticulture must combine two objectives that seem to be almost mutually exclusive: to satisfy the nutritional needs of an increasing human population and to minimize the negative impact on the environment. These two objectives are included in the Goal 2 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture'. Enhancing the nutritional levels of vegetables would improve nutrient intake without requiring an increase in consumption. In this context, the use of beneficial rhizospheric microorganisms for improving, not only growth and yield, but also the nutrient quality of crops represents a promising tool that may respond to the challenges for modern agriculture and horticulture and represents an alternative to the genetic engineering of crops. This paper summarizes the state of the art, the current difficulties associated to the use of rhizospheric microorganisms as enhancers of the nutritional quality of food crops as well as the future prospects

Trehalose matrices for high temperature dynamic nuclear polarization enhanced solid state NMR

International audienceTrehalose matrix in combination with a tailor designed dinitroxide radical represents a promising DNP medium for high-sensitivity solid-state NMR of biological substrates at elevated temperatures where conventional water-based formulations melt down

Where are we now with European forest multi-taxon biodiversity and where can we head to?

International audienceForestry implementation significantly impacts forest biodiversity. Despite the promotion of Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) in Europe, sustainability assessments hardly account for direct biodiversity indicators. We aim to i) gather and map the existing information on forest multitaxon biodiversity associated with stand structure and management in Europe; ii) identify knowledge gaps for forest biodiversity research; and iii) discuss the research potential associated with multitaxon biodiversity data. We established a research network focused on multi-taxon biodiversity, stand structure and management data of European forests; and fitted species records, standing trees, lying deadwood, and sampling unit metadata from 34 local datasets. Suitable information was available for 3,591 sampling units, each surveyed for on average 4.6 taxonomic groups. Standing tree diameters, tree height deadwood and tree-related microhabitats were sampled in respectively 2,889; 2,356; 2,309 and 1,388 sampling units. Sampling unit metadata includes spatial coordinates, and compositional and management descriptors. Available data cover all the 14 European forest compositional categories but are unevenly distributed among them, with European beech forests being over-represented as compared to thermophilous and boreal forests. Overall, the available information has the potential to inform the development of conservation and SFM strategies for European forests by supporting: (i) methodological harmonization and coordinated monitoring; (ii) the definition and testing of SFM indicators and thresholds; (iii) datadriven assessment of the effects of environmental and management drivers on multi-taxon forest biological and functional diversity, (iv) multi-scale forest monitoring integrating in-situ and remotely sensed information

Tocilizumab for patients with COVID-19 pneumonia. The single-arm TOCIVID-19 prospective trial

BackgroundTocilizumab blocks pro-inflammatory activity of interleukin-6 (IL-6), involved in pathogenesis of pneumonia the most frequent cause of death in COVID-19 patients.MethodsA multicenter, single-arm, hypothesis-driven trial was planned, according to a phase 2 design, to study the effect of tocilizumab on lethality rates at 14 and 30 days (co-primary endpoints, a priori expected rates being 20 and 35%, respectively). A further prospective cohort of patients, consecutively enrolled after the first cohort was accomplished, was used as a secondary validation dataset. The two cohorts were evaluated jointly in an exploratory multivariable logistic regression model to assess prognostic variables on survival.ResultsIn the primary intention-to-treat (ITT) phase 2 population, 180/301 (59.8%) subjects received tocilizumab, and 67 deaths were observed overall. Lethality rates were equal to 18.4% (97.5% CI: 13.6-24.0, P=0.52) and 22.4% (97.5% CI: 17.2-28.3, P<0.001) at 14 and 30 days, respectively. Lethality rates were lower in the validation dataset, that included 920 patients. No signal of specific drug toxicity was reported. In the exploratory multivariable logistic regression analysis, older age and lower PaO2/FiO2 ratio negatively affected survival, while the concurrent use of steroids was associated with greater survival. A statistically significant interaction was found between tocilizumab and respiratory support, suggesting that tocilizumab might be more effective in patients not requiring mechanical respiratory support at baseline.ConclusionsTocilizumab reduced lethality rate at 30 days compared with null hypothesis, without significant toxicity. Possibly, this effect could be limited to patients not requiring mechanical respiratory support at baseline.Registration EudraCT (2020-001110-38); clinicaltrials.gov (NCT04317092)