Electrospun poly(acrylonitrile-co-itaconic acid) as a porous carbon precursor for high performance supercapacitor: study of the porosity induced by in situ porogen activity of itaconic acid.

An acrylonitrile based copolymer, poly(acrylonitrile-co-itaconic acid), P(AN-co-IA) was synthesized with different amounts of itaconic acid (IA) to study in situ porogen activity of IA to produce porous carbon nanofibers (CNFs) without any subsequent physical or chemical activation. The concept developed here avoids unnecessary and complex extra activation steps when fabricating CNFs which ultimately lead to lower char yields and uncontrollable pore sizes. The ability of COOH in P(AN-co-IA) to act as an in situ porogen by releasing CO during carbonization was verified by simultaneous thermogravimetric analysis-mass spectrometry compared to polyacrylonitrile (PAN).

Enhanced enzymatic hydrolysis of rapeseed straw by popping pretreatment for bioethanol production.

The objective of this study was to find a pretreatment process that enhances enzymatic conversion of biomass to sugars. Rapeseed straw was pretreated by two processes: a wet process involving wet milling plus a popping treatment, and a dry process involving popping plus dry milling. The effects of the pretreatments were studied both in terms of structural and compositional changes and change in susceptibility to enzymatic hydrolysis.