Although the dry ice method used to synthesize exfoliated graphite/graphene is little known and used, it has significant advantages over others: it is low cost, simple, and a large quantity of material can be obtained using some inorganic and highly available acids (which can be reused). Despite the above advantages, the main reason for its incipient development is the resulting presence of magnesium oxide in the final product. In the present work, three different treatments were tested to remove this remnant using some acid chemical leaching processes. Based on the experimental evidence, it was found that using aqua regia, among other chemical mixtures, was the most efficient way of removing such as remnant, the residue being only 0.9 wt.%. A mandatory high-energy mechanical milling stage was necessary during this treatment, in order to expose and dissolve the highly insoluble oxide without secondary chemical reactions on the graphenes. The obtained surface area was 504 m2g-1; this high value resulted from the intense exfoliation can potentiate the use of this material for a wide variety of applications.

The rapid development of electric vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles, and wearable electronic devices has led to a high interest in research related to the synthesis of graphene with a high specific surface area for energy applications. However, the problem of graphene synthesis scalability, as well as the lengthy duration and high energy intensity of the activation processes of carbon materials, are significant disadvantages. In this study, a reactor was developed for the green, simple, and scalable electrochemical synthesis of graphene oxide with a low oxygen content of 14.1 %. The resulting material was activated using a fast joule heating method. The processing of mildly oxidized graphene with a high–energy short electrical pulse (32 ms) made it possible to obtain a graphene–based porous carbon material with a specific surface area of up to 1984.5 m2/g. The low energy intensity, simplicity, and use of environmentally friendly chemicals render the proposed method scalable.

Among the many Lysosomal Storage Disorders (LSDs) that would benefit from the establish-ment of novel cell models, either patient-derived or genetically engineered, is Mucopolysaccha-ridosis type II (MPS II). In fact, even though a specific therapeutic approach does exist for this disorder (Enzyme Replacement Therapy, ERT, with recombinant human IDS) and haematopoiet-ic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) may also hold promise whenever the disorder is diagnosed soon enough, both approaches have their own drawbacks. Here we present our results on the establishment and characterization of two MPS II pa-tient-derived stem cell line(s) from deciduous baby teeth. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time a stem cell population is isolated from LSD patient samples obtained from the oral cavity. Taking into account our results on the molecular and biochemical characterization of those cells and our first insights on their subcellular MPS phenotype, we consider these cells will be a valuable tool for both pathophysiological assessments and drugs screenings. Ultimately, we believe patient-derived dental pulp stem cells (DPSC) may represent a feasible alternative to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) in many labs with standard cell culture con-ditions and limited (human and economic) resources.