Highly Efficient and Reversible Carbon Dioxide Capture by Carbanion-Functionalized Ionic Liquids.

Due to the active unstable nature of carbon anions, it is challenging to develop carbanion-functionalized ionic liquids (ILs) for efficient and reversible carbon dioxide (CO2) capture. Here, a series of carbanion-based ILs with large conjugated structures were designed and a promising system was achieved through tuning the nucleophilicity of carbanions and screening the cation. The ideal carbanion-functionalized IL trihexyl(tetradecyl)phosphonium N,N-diethycyanoacetoamide ([P66614][DECA]) showed equimolar chemisorption of CO2 ( up to 0.98 mol CO2/mol IL) under ambient pressure and excellent absorption rate. What's more, the combined CO2 can be released easily, leading to excellent reversibility due to high stability of anion conjugated structures. More importantly, the presence of water had negligible effect on the absorption capacity, which makes it potential to be applied to the CO2 capture in industrial flue gas. The chemisorption mechanism of the carbanion and CO2 was confirmed by spectroscopic investigations and DFT calculations, where carboxylic acid product was formed through proton transfer after the carbanions reacted with CO2. Considering that high capacity, quick rate as well as excellent reversibility, these carbanion-functionalized ILs should certainly represent competitive candidates for further scale up and practical application in CO2 capture.

Durability analysis of metakaolin recycled concrete under sulphate dry and wet cycle.

This study aims to enhance the durability, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability of recycled fine aggregate concrete (RFAC) subjected to the combined effects of wet-dry cycles and sulfate erosion. Dry-wet cycle tests were conducted in RFAC with different admixtures of biotite metakaolin (MK) and 15% fly ash (FA) mix (M) under 5% sulfate erosion environment. The effect of 0%, 30%, 60% and 90% recycled fine aggregate (RFA) replacement of natural fine aggregate on mass loss, cubic compressive strength, relative dynamic modulus test of RFAC, damage modeling and prediction of damage life of concrete were investigated. The results showed that the concrete cubic compressive strength and relative dynamic modulus were optimal for recycled concrete at 15% MK biotite dosing and 60% RFA substitution, and its maximum service life was accurately predicted to be about 578 cycles under 5% sulfate dry-wet cycling using Weibull function model. This study is pioneering in addressing the durability of RFAC under sulfate attack combined with wet-dry cycling, employing a novel approach of incorporating MK and FA into RFAC. The findings highlight the practical application potential for using MK and FA in RFAC to produce durable and sustainable construction materials, particularly in sulfate-exposed environments. This research addresses a critical challenge in the construction industry, providing valuable insights for developing more durable and eco-friendly construction materials and contributing to long-term sustainability goals.

Integrated bioinformatic analysis reveals the underlying molecular mechanism of and potential drugs for pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a devastating cardiovascular disease without a clear mechanism or drugs for treatment. Therefore, it is crucial to reveal the underlying molecular mechanism and identify potential drugs for PAH. In this study, we first integrated three human lung tissue datasets (GSE113439, GSE53408, GSE117261) from GEO. A total of 151 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened, followed by KEGG and GO enrichment analyses and PPI network construction. Five hub genes (CSF3R, NT5E, ANGPT2, FGF7, and CXCL9) were identified by Cytoscape (Cytohubba). GSEA and GSVA were performed for each hub gene to uncover the potential mechanism. Moreover, to repurpose known and therapeutic drugs, the CMap database was retrieved, and nine candidate compounds (lypressin, ruxolitinib, triclabendazole, L-BSO, tiaprofenic acid, AT-9283, QL-X-138, huperzine-a, and L-741742) with a high level of confidence were obtained. Then ruxolitinib was selected to perform molecular docking simulations with ANGPT2, FGF7, NT5E, CSF3R, JAK1, JAK2, JAK3, TYK2. A certain concentration of ruxolitinib could inhibit the proliferation and migration of rat pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (rPASMCs) in vitro. Together, these analyses principally identified CSF3R, NT5E, ANGPT2, FGF7 and CXCL9 as candidate biomarkers of PAH, and ruxolitinib might exert promising therapeutic action for PAH.