Hollow porous micro/nanostructures with high surface area and shell permeability have attracted tremendous attention. Particularly, the synthesis and structural tailoring of diverse hollow porous materials is regarded as a crucial step toward the realization of high-performance electrode materials, which has several advantages including a large contact area with electrolyte, a superior structural stability, and a short transport path for Li(+) ions. Meanwhile, owing to the inexpensive, abundant, environmentally benign, and renewable biological resources provided by nature, great efforts have been devoted to understand and practice the biotemplating technology, which has been considered as an effective strategy to achieve morphology-controllable materials with structural specialty, complexity, and related unique properties. Herein, we are inspired by the natural microalgae with its special features (easy availability, biological activity, and carbon sources) to develop a green and facile biotemplating method to fabricate monodisperse MnO/C microspheres for lithium-ion batteries. Due to the unique hollow porous structure in which MnO nanoparticles were tightly embedded into a porous carbon matrix and form a penetrative shell, MnO/C microspheres exhibited high reversible specific capacity of 700 mAh g(-1) at 0.1 A g(-1), excellent cycling stability with 94% capacity retention, and enhanced rate performance of 230 mAh g(-1) at 3 A g(-1). This green, sustainable, and economical strategy will extend the scope of biotemplating synthesis for exploring other functional materials in various structure-dependent applications such as catalysis, gas sensing, and energy storage.

The dominant microorganisms in Daqu were analysed using high‐throughput sequencing during fermentation. There were 16 dominant fungal species accounting for 90.8% of the total fungal abundance with Pichia kudriavzevii accounting for 43%. There were 18 dominant bacterial species accounting for 94% of the total bacterial abundance with Lactobacillus representing >50%. The succession pattern of the microbial populations showed that, prior to the top temperature, the microbial population was rich, consisting of Pichia (yeast), Aspergillus, Rhizopus (moulds), Weissella, Pediococcus and Lactobacillus (bacteria). During the top temperature phase, Thermoascus aurantiacus predominated. After this, in the final Daqu, the microflora were mainly yeasts (Pichia, Saccharomycetales) and the bacteria Lactobacillus, Bacillus, Weissella and Pediococcus. These results lay the foundation for further studies on functional microorganisms in the preparation and the mechanism of Daqu formation. © 2018 The Institute of Brewing & Distilling

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BackgroundPhotoautotrophic microalgae are a promising avenue for sustained biodiesel production, but are compromised by low yields of biomass and lipids at present. We are developing a chemical approach to improve microalgal accumulation of feedstock lipids as well as high-value alpha-linolenic acid which in turn might provide a driving force for biodiesel production.ResultsWe demonstrate the effectiveness of the small bioactive molecule “acetylcholine” on accumulation of biomass, total lipids, and alpha-linolenic acid in Chlorella sorokiniana. The effectiveness exists in different species of Chlorella. Moreover, the precursor and analogs of acetylcholine display increased effectiveness at higher applied doses, with maximal increases by 126, 80, and 60% over controls for biomass, total lipids, and alpha-linolenic acid, respectively. Production of calculated biodiesel was also improved by the precursor and analogs of acetylcholine. The biodiesel quality affected by changes in microalgal fatty acid composition was addressed.ConclusionThe chemical approach described here could improve the lipid yield and biodiesel production of photoautotrophic microalgae if combined with current genetic approaches.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13068-015-0196-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The effects of trace elements on the lipid productivity and fatty acid composition ofNannochloropis oculata (N. oculata)were studied. The results showed that trace elements had a strong influence on not only the lipid productivity but also the fatty acid composition. The addition of Fe3+, Zn2+, Mn2+, Mo6+, and EDTA and the deletion of Cu2+and Co2+can increase the lipid productivity. The optimum concentrations of the trace elements in the culture medium are 6 times of Fe3+and EDTA, the same concentration of Zn2+, Mn2+, and Mo6+as the control group, but the optimum medium has no Cu2+or Co2+. Fe3+, Zn2+, Mn2+, Mo6+, and EDTA are indispensable during the EPA formation ofN. oculata. The addition of Fe3+, Zn2+, Mn2+, Mo6+, and EDTA can strongly increase the content of EPA in the lipid ofN. oculata, but the concentration of the trace elements had little influence on the level of EPA.