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A nano-sized carbonaceous material was derived from bacterial cellulose (BC). BC, which is produced by bacteria as nano-sized material, possesses high degree of crystallinity of 90%, was pyrolysed at 950°C and physically activated with CO 2 to produce a nano-sized activated carbon material. The pyrolysis of BC yielded a carbonaceous material (carbon yield of between 2% and 20%), with a relatively low D-to G-band ratio (between 2.2 and 2.8), indicating that the carbonaceous material possesses a graphitic structure. Two different BC materials were pyrolysed; a loose fibrous (freeze-dried) and dense paper form. It was observed that a carbon nanofibre-like material was produced by the pyrolysis of the loose fibrous form of BC. The electric double layer (EDL) capacitance and the area-normalised specific capacitance in K 2 SO 4 solution were as high as 42 F g-1 and 1617 F cm-2 , respectively. The EDL capacitance was also compared to commercially available activated carbon (YP-50F).

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A chemoselective spectroscopic method for measuring CO2 sorption isotherms at pressures up to 14 MPa (140 bar) is validated against manometric measurements and molecular simulations, giving insights into the preferred sorption sites in various crystalline porous organic cages.

A new development in Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) imaging using a diamond attenuated total reflection (ATR) imaging accessory in a novel manner that allows the angle of incidence to be varied in order to obtain images from subsurface layers of different thickness is introduced. Chemical images of samples from the same area but with different depths of penetration are obtained by changing the angle of incidence as well as using different spectral bands at different wavenumbers. Changes in the angle of incidence with this accessory were made possible by taking advantage of the relatively large numerical aperture employed by the original imaging optics. This arrangement allowed us to introduce an additional movable aperture in the optical design to restrict the angle of incidence to certain values. Two samples have been studied, one for the calibration of the angle of incidence while the other demonstrates the capability of obtaining three-dimensional (3D) information using this approach. Advantages of this new approach include the relatively high spatial resolution (it can spatially resolve features as small as 12 mum without a microscope) and no change in the imaging area and sampling area during manipulation of the angle of incidence.