Lithium-ion batteries can experience mechanical loads for a variety of reasons, including the rigidity of the cell casing itself, bracing of cell stacks in a module, which is generally due to limited space in the place of installation, or as a result of accidents or abuse. In all of these cases, and exacerbated by faulty manufacturing or assembly, the mechanical loads may be non-uniform across the cell surface. Here, we present an analysis of the effects of such non-uniform mechanical loads on the current density distribution during charging and show that they can provoke localized lithium plating. Pressure-compression relationships of individual cell components were determined experimentally and implemented into a pseudo-3D axisymmetric electrochemical-mechanical cell model of a 2.1 Ah pouch cell by Kokam, South Korea. The modeling results were successfully validated by comparison to a post-mortem evaluation of pouch cells that were cycled while being locally compressed.

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Recent years have witnessed important progress in synthetic strategies exploiting the reactivity of carbocations via photochemical or electrochemical methods. Yet, most of the developed methods are limited in their scope to certain stabilized positions in molecules. Herein, we report a metal-free system based on the iodine (I/III) catalytic manifold, which gives access to carbenium ion intermediates also on electronically disfavored benzylic positions. The unusually high reactivity of the system stems from a complexation of iodine (III) intermediates with BF3. The synthetic utility of our decarboxylative Ritter-type amination protocol has been demonstrated by the functionalization of benzylic as well as aliphatic carboxylic acids, including late-stage modification of different pharmaceutical molecules. Notably, the amination of ketoprofen was performed on a gram scale. Detailed mechanistic investigations by kinetic analysis and control experiments suggest two mechanistic pathways.

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Background: Advances in the treatment of pediatric congenital heart disease have increased survival rates. Despite efforts to prevent neurological injury, many patients suffer from impaired neurodevelopmental outcomes. Compromised cerebral autoregulation can increase the risk of brain injury following pediatric cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass. Monitoring autoregulation and maintaining adequate cerebral blood flow can help prevent neurological injury.Aims: Our objective was to evaluate autoregulation parameters and to define the optimal blood pressure as well as the lower and upper blood pressure limits of autoregulation.Methods: Autoregulation was monitored prospectively in 36 infants after cardiopulmonary bypass surgery for congenital heart defects between January and December 2019. Autoregulation indices were calculated by correlating invasive arterial blood pressure, cortical oxygen saturation, and relative tissue hemoglobin levels with nearinfrared spectroscopy parameters. Results:The mean patient age was 4.1 ± 2.8 months, and the mean patient weight was 5.2 ± 1.8 kg. Optimal mean arterial pressure could be identified in 88.9% of patients via the hemoglobin volume index and in 91.7% of patients via the cerebral oxygenation index, and a lower limit of autoregulation could be found in 66.7% and 63.9% of patients, respectively. No significant changes in autoregulation indices at the beginning or end of the monitoring period were observed. In 76.5% ± 11.1% and 83.8% ± 9.9% of the 8 and 16 h monitoring times, respectively, the mean blood pressure was inside the range of intact autoregulation (below in 21.5% ± 25.4% and 11.3% ± 16.5% and above in 8.7% ± 10.4% and 6.0% ± 11.0%, respectively). The mean optimal blood pressure was 57.4 ± 8.7 mmHg and 58.2 ± 7.9 mmHg and the mean lower limit of autoregulation | 1321 ZIPFEL et al.