Enhancement of desulfurization by hydroxyl ammonium ionic liquid supported on active carbon.

Power plants emit sulfur dioxide (SO2) during combustion, which is typically removed via wet flue gas desulfurization, but this process produces numerous secondary pollutants. Ionic liquids (ILs) can potentially be used to remove SO2, but they suffer from poor mass transfer rates. Hydroxyl ammonium ILs are classical cheap ILs that contain electron-rich O and N sites that favor high absorption capacities. To accelerate mass transfer, two hydroxyl ammonium ILs, triethanolamine citrate and triethanolamine lactate, were immobilized on activated carbon (SILs) and used to capture SO2 from simulated flue gas. They exhibited excellent adsorption at low SO2 partial pressures due to the presence of a large gas-liquid interface. The molar adsorption ratios reached 7.65 and 2.40 mol/mol at 10 kPa SO2. The SILs possessed good SO2 selectivity in SO2/CO2 and SO2/O2 mixtures, because of the only 8% reduction in the total adsorption of SILs at 60 °C. And they exhibited excellent reversibility in which their total adsorption capacities were unaffected after 5 adsorption-desorption cycles. The mechanism analysis revealed that chemical adsorption was the major adsorption route, although physical adsorption also occurred. The main reactive sites included C-O and N-H groups in the ionic liquid. These SILs may potentially replace traditional chemical absorption materials for the separation of SO2 from flue gas.

Effect of low frequency repetitive magnetic stimulation at Shenmen (HT7) on sleep quality in patients with chronic insomnia.

BACKGROUND: Insomnia is a common, recurrent, and tenacious sleep problem, especially the chronic insomnia. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) at right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (r-DLPFC) is used in chronic insomnia, and repetitive magnetic stimulation (rMS) at Shenmen (HT7) acupoint may be an alternative approach. However, the efficacy and mechanism of rMS at HT7 acupoint for chronic insomnia has not been confirmed. METHODS/DESIGN: This is a 3-armed randomized positive-controlled noninferiority clinical trial. We will allocate 45 subjects aged between 18 and 65 years old, diagnosed with initial chronic insomnia over 3 months to 3 groups randomly in a ratio of 1:1:1. Patients in the experimental group will be treated with rMS at HT7 acupoint while the others in the control group will be treated with rTMS at r-DLPFC or waiting treatment. All will be given rMS at HT7 or rTMS at r-DLPFC or no treatment for 10 days, and then received 20-day follow-up. Patients will be evaluated with the insomnia severity index and Pittsburgh sleep quality index for sleep state, Beck Depression Inventory-2nd edition scores for the depression state, Beck anxiety inventory scores for the anxiety state, and Montreal Cognitive Assessment scores for the cognition state before and the 10th day of treatment, 30th day of follow-up; study on mechanisms of rMS will be revealed through the resting motor threshold diversity of the motor cortex before and the 10th day of treatment, 30th day of follow-up. Baseline characteristics of patients will be summarized by groups and compared with Chi-squared for categorical variables, and analysis of variance or Kruskal-Wallis test for the continuous variables. Primary and secondary outcomes according to the measurement times are applicable to univariate repetitive measurement deviation analysis or analysis of variance, or Kruskal-Wallis test. CONCLUSION: The present study is designed to preliminarily investigate short-term efficacy and mechanism of rMS at HT7 acupoint therapy on chronic insomnia, also to explore the correlation between motor cortex excitability and chronic insomnia. With this research, we are looking forward to find out an appropriate alternative and easy therapy for chronic insomnia individuals compared with rTMS at r-DLPFC. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The trial was registered on Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (http://www.chictr.org.cn/index.aspx) with the ID ChiCTR1900026844 on October 24, 2019.