With high redox activity, superior conductivity, abundant pores, and large specific surface area, nitrogen-doped graphitic carbon featuring a hierarchically porous structure is regarded as ideal electrode material for supercapacitors. In this work, hierarchically porous nitrogen-doped graphitic carbon (PG-PZC50) was fabricated via non-solvent induced phase separation and high-temperature calcination processes. SEM images showed its three-dimensional network structure, with abundant macro- and mesopores distributed throughout. XRD and Raman spectra confirmed the phase purity and graphitic nature of the as-prepared material, while XPS revealed its surface elemental composition, especially the content and doping states of nitrogen atoms. The graphene oxide-induced three-dimensional network, combined with the mesoporous structure of metalorganic framework-derived N-doped carbon particles, creates abundant migration channels and a large adsorption surface area for the electrolyte ions. Benefiting from its hierarchically porous structure and high nitrogen-doping content, the formed PG-PZC50 reached high specific capacitances of 499.7 F g− 1 at 0.1 A g− 1 and 179.6 F g− 1 at 20 A g− 1. Notably, the material also demonstrated robust cyclic stability with no capacitance loss after 10,000 charge–discharge cycles. The proposed synthetic strategy provides new ideas for the facile and reproducible construction of nitrogen-doped graphitic carbon with 3D hierarchically porous structure and high capacitive performances.
The incidence of freshwater algal bloom has been increasing globally in recent years and poses a major threat to environmental health. Cyanobacteria are the major component of the bloom forming community that must be monitored frequently. Their morphological identities, however, have remained elusive, due to their small size in cells and morphological resemblances among species. We have analyzed molecular diversity and seasonal changes of cyanobacteria in Paldang Reservoir, Korea, using morphological and 16S rRNA pyrosequencing methods. Samples were collected at monthly intervals from the reservoir March-December 2012. In total, 40 phylotypes of cyanobacteria were identified after comparing 49,131 pyrosequence reads. Cyanobacterial genera such as Anabaena, Aphanizomenon, Microcystis and Synechocystis were predominantly present in samples. However, the majority of cyanobacterial sequences (65.9%) identified in this study were of uncultured origins, not detected morphologically. Relative abundance of cyanobacterial sequences was observed as high in August, with no occurrence in March and December. These results suggested that pyrosequencing approach may reveal cyanobacterial diversity undetected morphologically, and may be used as reference for studying and monitoring cyanobacterial communities in aquatic environments.