Peony pollen derived nitrogen-doped activated carbon for supercapacitor application

Peony pollen is a cheap and readily available biomass material with a relatively high protein content.In this work,it was employed as an N-rich precursor to prepare the nitrogen-doped porous carbon for supercapacitor application.The porous carbon microspheres were prepared through a hydrothermal method and subsequent carbonization process.Notably,ammonium borofruoride and potassium hydroxide were employed respectively as an etchant and an activator to modify the porosity of the materials.The as prepared ANPPCs-700 has a super high BET specific surface area of 824.69 m^2/g.The microstructure,chemical state and electrochemical properties of the product were investigated in detail.The prepared nitrogen-doped carbon microspheres exhibits excellent specific capacity of 209 F/g at a current density of lA/g and remained 92.5%of the initial capacitance after 5000 deep cycles at 5 A/g.

Loss of preferred habitat and pollen limitation threatens reproduction in a rare mountain Paeonia delavayi

Paeonia delavayi is a wild tree peony species endemic to high-altitude regions in southwestern China.Recent agricultural land expansion,however,not only causes its dwindling population size,but also poses a severe threat to its long-term persistence.Since our knowledge of the reproductive biology of P.delavayi is very limited,and some management misconceptions have further exacerbated the already worrisome situation,the aim of the present study is to provide some scientific evidence regarding habitat preference and breeding system of P.delavayi,and to help correct some management misconceptions.Specifically,morphological traits of P.delavayi populations growing in two different habitats(i.e.,the open area versus forest understory),including basal stem diameter,plant height and flower numbers per plant,were measured and compared with each other.A range of floral manipulation experiments was further conducted to study the extent of self-compatibility and pollen limitation.The results showed that P.delavayi preferred the open habitat over forest understory as it generally grew bigger with thickerstems,and produced a higher number of flowers in the former habitat.Therefore,the open habitat should receive immediate priority for conservation action instead of being converted to agricultural land;also,P.delavayi is pollen limited,as evidenced by the fact that experimental flowers receiving supplemental non-self pollen generally displayed elevated seed production than flowers subjected to other treatments(e.g.,non-supplemental self pollen,non-supplemental non-self pollen and supplemental self pollen),which is consistent with reported observations that alpine plants are more likely to be pollen-limited than lowland plants.We suggest that human intervention might be necessary to guarantee the long-term persistence of P.delavayi as harsh alpine environment,intense competition for pollinators and different anthropogenic perturbations co-limit its reproductive success.