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Climate and environmental change may provoke constant microscopic dimensional alterations to organically composed works of art. The complexity of alterations obstructs the classification of destructive effects and sustainable strategies for preservation, and systematic investigation of change requires safe inspection tools, repeatable procedures and non-perturbing approaches. In this paper, a state-of-the-art description on the dimensional monitoring tools for the assessment of the effects of climate fluctuations in paintings is given. Rapid initial start-up reactions of alteration processes that may simulate endangered conditions, which may be encountered during transportation of works of art, are studied. The case of wooden panel paintings is considered here as panels are representative models of inhomogeneous organic construction. The effect of the surface movement of panel painting surfaces due to simulated changes in temperature and relative humidity is characteristic of structural deterioration and as such these effects are primarily monitored in the start-up of the reaction process. The environmentally-provoked spatial alteration is recorded in full-field surface coordinates using optical coherent out-of-plane digital interferometry in a geometry utilizing holographic speckle patterns. Results demonstrate the suitability of the method to follow the start-up simulated process in real time directly from the work of art and to follow the rate of reaction towards equilibrium. The effectiveness of the full surface assessment provided in real time is presented and provides significant advantages compared to alternative techniques which are based on fragmented solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an increasing demand for the development of highly efficient CO2 capture techniques to address global warming and climate change. Although adsorption is an effective approach towards capturing CO2, conventional adsorbents possess limited adsorption capacities and exhibit low adsorption rates. In this study, we successfully fabricated mesoporous composite CeO2–MgO adsorbents (CM-BT) with diverse active sites via the eggshell membrane (ESM)-templating method, for CO2 capture applications. The utilisation of ESM-templating produced a CM-BT with better structural and textural properties. The CM-BT possessed a higher surface area (42 m2/g) and pore volume (0.185 cm3/g) than those of the composite prepared using a thermal decomposition method (CM-TD). In addition, the CM-BT possessed more diverse base sites of various strong base site strengths (O2−) and abundant hydroxyl groups, and metal–oxygen pair base sites than CM-TD. The diverse strengths of the strong base sites were correlated with the coordination of O2− and the electronegativity of metal ions. With these excellent physicochemical properties, the CM-BT composite exhibited a high CO2 uptake capacity of 5.7 mmol/g under CO2 flow and ambient conditions, which is 2.5 times higher than that of CM-TD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to the atmosphere are causing increased public concern due to the consequence of global climate change, and solid adsorbents are one of the most promising options for CO2 capture. A fresh method for the fabrication of amine-modified CO2 solid adsorbents was proposed. Graphene oxide (GO) was modified by different concentrations of polyethylenimine (PEI) by a one-step method. The physical chemical structure and adsorption/desorption properties were characterized in detail. Results showed that the PEI-GO solid adsorbents were successfully fabricated and the particles were uniform, controllable and intact. The CO2 adsorption properties of PEI-GO solid adsorbents were measured, and the solid adsorbents exhibited good CO2 adsorption capacity (128.1 mg/g) at 75 °C. In addition, the PEI-GO solid adsorbents were regenerable and exhibited good stability. Accordingly, this work stands out as a promising solution to a distinct way for the fabrication technology of CO2 solid adsorbents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]