We created unique interconnected partially graphitic carbon nanosheets (10-30 nm in thickness) with high specific surface area (up to 2287 m(2) g(-1)), significant volume fraction of mesoporosity (up to 58%), and good electrical conductivity (211-226 S m(-1)) from hemp bast fiber. The nanosheets are ideally suited for low (down to 0 °C) through high (100 °C) temperature ionic-liquid-based supercapacitor applications: At 0 °C and a current density of 10 A g(-1), the electrode maintains a remarkable capacitance of 106 F g(-1). At 20, 60, and 100 °C and an extreme current density of 100 A g(-1), there is excellent capacitance retention (72-92%) with the specific capacitances being 113, 144, and 142 F g(-1), respectively. These characteristics favorably place the materials on a Ragone chart providing among the best power-energy characteristics (on an active mass normalized basis) ever reported for an electrochemical capacitor: At a very high power density of 20 kW kg(-1) and 20, 60, and 100 °C, the energy densities are 19, 34, and 40 Wh kg(-1), respectively. Moreover the assembled supercapacitor device yields a maximum energy density of 12 Wh kg(-1), which is higher than that of commercially available supercapacitors. By taking advantage of the complex multilayered structure of a hemp bast fiber precursor, such exquisite carbons were able to be achieved by simple hydrothermal carbonization combined with activation. This novel precursor-synthesis route presents a great potential for facile large-scale production of high-performance carbons for a variety of diverse applications including energy storage.

Mesoporous oxides attract a great deal of interest in many fields, including energy, catalysis and separation, because of their tunable structural properties such as surface area, pore volume and size, and nanocrystalline walls. Here we report thermally stable, crystalline, thermally controlled monomodal pore size mesoporous materials. Generation of such materials involves the use of inverse micelles, elimination of solvent effects, minimizing the effect of water content and controlling the condensation of inorganic frameworks by NO x decomposition. Nanosize particles are formed in inverse micelles and are randomly packed to a mesoporous structure. The mesopores are created by interconnected intraparticle voids and can be tuned from 1.2 to 25 nm by controlling the nanoparticle size. Such phenomena allow the preparation of multiple phases of the same metal oxide and syntheses of materials having compositions throughout much of the periodic table, with different structures and thermal stabilities as high as 800°C.

Water oxidation is the bottleneck in artificial photosynthetic systems that aim to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. However, water oxidation occurs readily in plants, catalyzed by the Mn4O4Ca manganese cluster. In addition to this, manganese minerals are ubiquitous in nature displaying layered and tunnel structures. In this study, mixed valent porous amorphous manganese oxides (AMO), along with cryptomelane type tunnel manganese oxides (OMS-2) and layered birnessite (OL-1) have been used as water oxidation catalysts. Significantly higher turnovers were obtained with AMO (290 mmol O2/mol Mn) compared to tunnel structure OMS-2 (110 mmol O2/mol Mn) and layered structure OL-1 (27 mmol O2/mol Mn) in water oxidation tests with Ce4+. Oxygen evolution was also confirmed under photochemical conditions using Ru­(bpy)3 2+ as a photosensitizer and persulfate as a sacrificial agent. The differences in catalytic activity among these catalysts have been probed using X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, Raman and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, average oxidation state, and compositional analyses. Comparison of AMO against prominent manganese catalysts described in literature shows AMO provided the highest turnover numbers. AMO catalyst was also reusable after regeneration. O-18 labeling studies proved that water was the source of dioxygen and IR proved the structural stability of AMO after reaction. AMO is related to hexagonal birnessites such as layered biogenic manganese oxides or H+-birnessite that have cation vacancies in the MnO2 sheets rather than completely filled Mn3+/Mn4+ sheets, and this is influential in catalytic activity.