Optimization of the catalytic layer for alkaline fuel cells based on fumatech membranes and ionomer

Polymer electrolyte fuel cells with alkaline anion exchange membranes (AAEMs) have gained increasing attention because of the faster reaction kinetics associated with the alkaline environment compared to acidic media. While the development of anion exchange polymer membranes is increasing, the catalytic layer structure and composition of electrodes is of paramount importance to maximize fuel cell performance. In this work, we examine the preparation procedures for electrodes by catalyst-coated substrate to be used with a well-known commercial AAEM, Fumasep® FAA-3, and a commercial ionomer of the same nature (Fumion), both from Fumatech GmbH. The anion exchange procedure, the ionomer concentration in the catalytic layer and also the effect of membrane thickness, are investigated as they are very relevant parameters conditioning the cell behavior. The best power density was achieved upon ion exchange of the ionomer by submerging the electrodes in KCl (isopropyl alcohol/water solution) for at least one hour, two exchange steps, followed by treatment in KOH for 30 min. The optimum ionomer (Fumion) concentration was found to be close to 50 wt%, with a relatively narrow interval of functioning ionomer percentages. These results provide a practical guide for electrode preparation in AAEM-based fuel cell research

Evolution of the use of corticosteroids for the treatment of hospitalised COVID-19 patients in Spain between March and November 2020: SEMI-COVID national registry

Objectives: Since the results of the RECOVERY trial, WHO recommendations about the use of corticosteroids (CTs) in COVID-19 have changed. The aim of the study is to analyse the evolutive use of CTs in Spain during the pandemic to assess the potential influence of new recommendations. Material and methods: A retrospective, descriptive, and observational study was conducted on adults hospitalised due to COVID-19 in Spain who were included in the SEMI-COVID- 19 Registry from March to November 2020. Results: CTs were used in 6053 (36.21%) of the included patients. The patients were older (mean (SD)) (69.6 (14.6) vs. 66.0 (16.8) years; p < 0.001), with hypertension (57.0% vs. 47.7%; p < 0.001), obesity (26.4% vs. 19.3%; p < 0.0001), and multimorbidity prevalence (20.6% vs. 16.1%; p < 0.001). These patients had higher values (mean (95% CI)) of C-reactive protein (CRP) (86 (32.7-160) vs. 49.3 (16-109) mg/dL; p < 0.001), ferritin (791 (393-1534) vs. 470 (236- 996) µg/dL; p < 0.001), D dimer (750 (430-1400) vs. 617 (345-1180) µg/dL; p < 0.001), and lower Sp02/Fi02 (266 (91.1) vs. 301 (101); p < 0.001). Since June 2020, there was an increment in the use of CTs (March vs. September; p < 0.001). Overall, 20% did not receive steroids, and 40% received less than 200 mg accumulated prednisone equivalent dose (APED). Severe patients are treated with higher doses. The mortality benefit was observed in patients with oxygen saturation </=90%. Conclusions: Patients with greater comorbidity, severity, and inflammatory markers were those treated with CTs. In severe patients, there is a trend towards the use of higher doses. The mortality benefit was observed in patients with oxygen saturation </=90%

RICORS2040 : The need for collaborative research in chronic kidney disease

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a silent and poorly known killer. The current concept of CKD is relatively young and uptake by the public, physicians and health authorities is not widespread. Physicians still confuse CKD with chronic kidney insufficiency or failure. For the wider public and health authorities, CKD evokes kidney replacement therapy (KRT). In Spain, the prevalence of KRT is 0.13%. Thus health authorities may consider CKD a non-issue: very few persons eventually need KRT and, for those in whom kidneys fail, the problem is 'solved' by dialysis or kidney transplantation. However, KRT is the tip of the iceberg in the burden of CKD. The main burden of CKD is accelerated ageing and premature death. The cut-off points for kidney function and kidney damage indexes that define CKD also mark an increased risk for all-cause premature death. CKD is the most prevalent risk factor for lethal coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the factor that most increases the risk of death in COVID-19, after old age. Men and women undergoing KRT still have an annual mortality that is 10- to 100-fold higher than similar-age peers, and life expectancy is shortened by ~40 years for young persons on dialysis and by 15 years for young persons with a functioning kidney graft. CKD is expected to become the fifth greatest global cause of death by 2040 and the second greatest cause of death in Spain before the end of the century, a time when one in four Spaniards will have CKD. However, by 2022, CKD will become the only top-15 global predicted cause of death that is not supported by a dedicated well-funded Centres for Biomedical Research (CIBER) network structure in Spain. Realizing the underestimation of the CKD burden of disease by health authorities, the Decade of the Kidney initiative for 2020-2030 was launched by the American Association of Kidney Patients and the European Kidney Health Alliance. Leading Spanish kidney researchers grouped in the kidney collaborative research network Red de Investigación Renal have now applied for the Redes de Investigación Cooperativa Orientadas a Resultados en Salud (RICORS) call for collaborative research in Spain with the support of the Spanish Society of Nephrology, Federación Nacional de Asociaciones para la Lucha Contra las Enfermedades del Riñón and ONT: RICORS2040 aims to prevent the dire predictions for the global 2040 burden of CKD from becoming true

Repositioning of the global epicentre of non-optimal cholesterol

High blood cholesterol is typically considered a feature of wealthy western countries1,2. However, dietary and behavioural determinants of blood cholesterol are changing rapidly throughout the world3 and countries are using lipid-lowering medications at varying rates. These changes can have distinct effects on the levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and non-HDL cholesterol, which have different effects on human health4,5. However, the trends of HDL and non-HDL cholesterol levels over time have not been previously reported in a global analysis. Here we pooled 1,127 population-based studies that measured blood lipids in 102.6 million individuals aged 18 years and older to estimate trends from 1980 to 2018 in mean total, non-HDL and HDL cholesterol levels for 200 countries. Globally, there was little change in total or non-HDL cholesterol from 1980 to 2018. This was a net effect of increases in low- and middle-income countries, especially in east and southeast Asia, and decreases in high-income western countries, especially those in northwestern Europe, and in central and eastern Europe. As a result, countries with the highest level of non-HDL cholesterol—which is a marker of cardiovascular risk—changed from those in western Europe such as Belgium, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Malta in 1980 to those in Asia and the Pacific, such as Tokelau, Malaysia, The Philippines and Thailand. In 2017, high non-HDL cholesterol was responsible for an estimated 3.9 million (95% credible interval 3.7 million–4.2 million) worldwide deaths, half of which occurred in east, southeast and south Asia. The global repositioning of lipid-related risk, with non-optimal cholesterol shifting from a distinct feature of high-income countries in northwestern Europe, north America and Australasia to one that affects countries in east and southeast Asia and Oceania should motivate the use of population-based policies and personal interventions to improve nutrition and enhance access to treatment throughout the world.</p

Electrocatalizadores para pilas de combustible de membrana polimérica

Polymer Electrolyte Fuel cells (PEMFC) represent one of the key enabling technologies to address two major challenges that our society faces today, the energy shortage and the environmental problems. In recent years the development of this technology has been remarkable, so that is not a topic the idea that one day PEMFC may replace internal combustion engines. This remarkable progress is mainly due to that directly responsible for the efficiency and durability of a PEMFC stack, the electrocatalyst. In the past decade, the advances of nanotechnology have opened new window of phenomena facilitating the enhancement of activity and stability of these materials at lower priceLas pilas de combustible de membrana polimérica (PEMFC) representan unas de las tecnologías claves para poder afrontar dos grandes dificultades a los que se enfrenta nuestra sociedad actual, la escasez de energía y los problemas medioambientales. Durante los últimos años el desarrollo de esta tecnología ha sido extraordinario, tanto es así, que ya no es un tópico la idea de que algún día puedan reemplazar a los motores de combustión interna. Este extraordinario avance se debe, principalmente, a uno de los responsables directos de la eficiencia y la durabilidad de la pila PEMFC, el electrocatalizador. El gran progreso ocurrido en las últimas décadas en el campo de la nanotecnología ha abierto una nueva ventana de fenómenos que están ayudando a mejorar la actividad y la estabilidad de los electrocatalizadores a un menor cost

Crystal Growth, Structural Phase Transitions, and Optical Gap Evolution of CH 3 NH 3 Pb(Br 1-x Cl x ) 3 Perovskites

Chemically tuned inorganic-organic hybrid halide perovskites based on bromide and chloride anions CH 3 NH 3 Pb(Br 1-x Cl x ) 3 have been crystallized and investigated by synchrotron X-ray diffraction (SXRD), scanning electron microscopy, and UV-vis spectroscopy. CH 3 NH 3 PbBr 3 and CH 3 NH 3 PbCl 3 experience successive phase transitions upon cooling, which are suppressed for intermediate compositions probably due to compositional disorder. For CH 3 NH 3 PbCl 3 , a transient phase, formerly described as tetragonal, was identified at 167.5 K; the analysis of SXRD data demonstrated that it is indeed orthorhombic, with space group Pnma, and a ≈ 2a p ; b ≈ 2a p ; c ≈ 2a p (a p is the ideal cubic perovskite unit-cell parameter). The band gap engineering brought about by the chemical management of CH 3 NH 3 Pb(Br 1-x Cl x ) 3 perovskites can be controllably tuned: the gap progressively increases with the concentration of Cl ions from 2.2 to 2.9 eV, and shows a concomitant variation with the unit-cell parameters of the cubic phases at 295 K. This study provides an improved understanding of the structural and optical properties of the mixed CH 3 NH 3 Pb(Br 1-x Cl x ) 3 perovskites.Fil: Alvarez Galván, M.C.. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas; EspañaFil: Alonso, J.A.. Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid; EspañaFil: Lopez, Carlos Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Luis. Instituto de Investigaciones en Tecnología Química. Universidad Nacional de San Luis. Facultad de Química, Bioquímica y Farmacia. Instituto de Investigaciones en Tecnología Química; ArgentinaFil: López Linares, E.. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas; EspañaFil: Contreras, C.. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas; EspañaFil: Lázaro, M.J.. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Instituto de Carboquímica; EspañaFil: Fauth, F.. No especifíca;Fil: Martínez Huerta, M.V.. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas; Españ

Bimetallic PdCo and PdFe electrocatalysts for the electrochemical oxidation of formica acid

Pd, PdCo and PdFe catalysts were prepared by the impregnation method, using sodium borohydride (NaBH4) as the reducing agent and a commercial carbon material (Vulcan XC-72R) as support. The synthesized electrocatalysts were tested for the formic acid oxidation reaction (FAOR) in acid medium (H2SO4 0.5 M). The morphology, composition and particle size of the electrocatalysts were characterized by physicochemical techniques as X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The catalytic activity was evaluated by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and chronoamperometry techniques (CA)Catalizadores de Pd, PdFe y PdCo fueron preparados por el método de impregnación, usando borohidruro de sodio (NaBH4) como agente reductor y un material de carbono comercial, (Vulcan XC-72R) como soporte. Los electrocatalizadores sintetizados fueron probados para la reacción de oxidación de ácido fórmico (FAOR, por sus siglas en inglés) en medio ácido (H2SO4 0,5 M). La morfología, la composición y el tamaño de partícula de los electrocatalizadores se caracterizaron mediante técnicas físico-químicas como difracción de rayos X (XRD), microscopía electrónica de barrido con espectroscopia por energía dispersiva (SEM-EDS) y microscopia electrónica de transmisión (TEM). La actividad catalítica se evaluó mediante técnicas de voltamperometría cíclica (CV) y cronoamperometría (CA