Tailoring novel polymer/UTSA-16 hybrid aerogels for efficient CH4/CO2 separation

A significant number of industrially relevant separation processes involves the removal of carbon dioxide (CO2), as the purification of natural gas (CO2/CH4 separation). In this scenario, the development of new adsorbents with a real technological future for CO2 separation, i.e with a high separation efficiency, good mechanical properties and easy to handle, is of primary importance. In the present work, novel composite monolithic aerogels containing the UTSA-16 metal organic framework as the active phase and porous crystalline polymers (namely syndiotactic polystyrene and polyphenyloxide) as binders were successfully synthesized and fully characterized. The adsorption capacity of such novel aerogels towards CO2 and CH4 was tested at low pressure and variable temperature, allowing the evaluation of their CO2/CH4 selectivity. Micmcalorimetric experiments provided the CO2 interaction energy and disclosed possible deformation-relaxation phenomena involving the polymeric matrix during gas adsorption. The new composites retain a very high CO2 adsorption capacity compared to the pristine UTSA-16 (around 75% at 298 K and 1 bar) and have excellent CO2 capture performances in comparison to other types of supported/printed MOFs reported in the literature. The outstanding adsorption properties and the possibility to obtain monoliths with the desired size and shape and good mechanical stability make these new composites very good candidates for efficient CO2/CH4 separation processes

Impaired short-term visual paired associative plasticity in patients with migraine between attacks

A common experimental neurophysiological method to study synaptic plasticity is pairing activity of somatosensory afferents and motor cortical circuits, so-called paired associative stimulation (PAS). Dysfunctional inhibitory and excitatory PAS mechanisms within the sensorimotor system were described in patients with migraine without aura (MO) between attacks. We have recently observed that the same bidirectional PAS rules also apply to the visual system. Here, we have tested whether dysfunctioning associative plasticity might characterize the visual system of patients with MO. In 14 patients with MO between attacks and in 15 healthy volunteers, we performed a previously validated visual PAS (vPAS) protocol by coupling 90 black-and-white checkerboard reversals with low-frequency transcranial magnetic stimulation pulses over the occipital cortex at 2 interstimulus intervals of -25/+25 ms around the visual-evoked potential (VEP) P1 latency. We recorded VEPs (600 sweeps) before, immediately after, and 10 min after each vPAS session. We analysed VEP N1-P1 amplitude and delayed habituation. Although vPAS-25 significantly enhanced and vPAS + 25 reduced VEP amplitude habituation in healthy volunteers, the same protocols did not significantly change VEP amplitude habituation in MO between attacks. We provide evidence for lack of habituation enhancing and habituation suppressing visual PAS mechanisms within the visual system in interictal migraine. This finding, in combination with those previously obtained studying the sensorimotor system, leads us to argue that migraine disease-related dysrhythmic thalamocortical activity prevents the occurrence of physiological bidirectional synaptic plasticity induced by vPAS