Sustainable biomass-derived porous carbons demonstrate excellent capacitive properties owing to their heteroatom-rich nature and distinct textural feature. Herein, a series of nitrogen-/phosphorus-/oxygen-containing microporous carbons (CWWN/ P/O-MPCs) have been successfully fabricated by etching in H2O2 solution, pre-treatment of camphor wood wastes with KOH solution and subsequent carbonization. As an electrode material for supercapacitors, the typical microporous carbon (CWW-N/P/O-MPCs-0.5) exhibits a remarkably high specific capacitance of 245 F g− 1 at 0.5 A g− 1, corresponding to an impressively large volumetric capacitance of 208 F m− 3, and excellent long-term stability over 10,000 cycles. The excellent electrochemical performance can be ascribed to the optimal combination of heteroatom groups and ultrafine micropores.

The South Korean Ministry of the Environment has revised the laws relating to the management of interior air quality for multiple use facilities, and recommends maintaining carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration in passenger vehicles below 1000 ppm during operation in urban areas of large cities. However, the interior CO2 concentration of passenger vehicles can rapidly increase and exceed 5000 ppm within 30 min, as observed when two passengers are traveling in urban areas of the South Korean city of Jeonju with the air conditioner blower turned off and the actuator mode set to internal circulation mode. With four passengers, CO2 concentration can reach up to 6000 ppm within 10 min. To counter this, when the actuator is set to external mode, CO2 concentration can be maintained below 1000 ppm, even after a long period of running time. As part of the air conditioning system, alkali-treated activated carbon fiber filters are considered to be far superior to the commercial non-woven filters or combination filters currently commonly in use.

The oxygen and nitrogen enriched activated carbons were obtained from modification of commercial activated carbon by using nitric acid, sodium hydroxide and urea. Zeta-potentials of modified activated carbons were investigated in relation to copper ion adsorption. The structural properties of modified activated carbons were not so much changed, but the zeta-potentials and isoelectric points were considerably changed. The zeta-potential of nitric acid modified activated carbon was the most negative than other activated carbons in the entire pH region, and the pHIEP was shifted from pH 4.8 to 2.6, resulted in the largest copper ion adsorption capacities compare with other activated carbons in the range of pH 3~6.5. In case of urea modified activated carbon, copper ion adsorption was larger than that of the as-received activated carbon from pH 2 to pH 6.5 even though the pHIEP was shifted to pH 6.0, it was due to the coordination process operated between nitrogen functional groups and copper ion. The adsorption capacity of copper ion was much influenced by zeta-potential and pHIEP of carbon adsorbent.

The failure behaviours of unidirectional pultruded carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites were monitored by the electrical resistance measurement during tensile loading, three-point-bending, interlaminar shear loading. The tensile failure behaviour of carbon fiber tows was also investigated by the electrical resistance measurement. Infrared thermography non-destructive evaluation was performed in real time during tensile test of CFRP composites to validate the change of microdamage in the materials. Experiment results demonstrated that the CFRP composites and carbon fiber tows were damaged by different damage mechinsms during tensile loading, for the CFRP composites, mainly being in the forms of matrix damage and the debonding between matrix and fibers, while for the carbon fiber tows, mainly being in the forms of fiber fracture. The correlation between the infrared thermographs and the change in the electrical resistance could be regarded as an evidence of the damage mechanisms of the CFRP composites. During three-point-bending loading, the main damage forms were the simultaneity fracture of matrix and fibers firstly, then matrix cracking and the debonding between matrix and fiber were carried out. This results can be shown in Fig. 9(a) and (b). During interlaminar shear loading, the change in the electrical resistance was related to the damage degree of interlaminar structure. Electrical resistance measurement was more sensitive to the damage behaviour of the CFRP composites than the stress/time curve.