Prawn shells, an abundant marine chitin (poly-β(1→4)-N-acetyl-D-glucosamine) biomass source and high volume food waste, have successfully been converted into nitrogen doped carbon (>5% N) in a simple three step sustainable manner to yield a highly textured, high surface area (S_BET > 300 m²g⁻¹) and high pore volume (V_pore > 0.6 cm³g⁻¹) material. The preformed natural inorganic (CaCO₃)/organic (chitin) shell composite provides the precursor structure, which is simply converted via hydrothermal carbonisation to yield nitrogen rich carbon material templated by the mineral scaffold. The resulting carbonaceous composite may be purified of the inorganic component by washing with acetic acid, leading to enhanced mesoporous properties. This approach renders materials with interesting nanoscale morphology and an accessible interconnected pore structure (pore diameter > 10 nm), presenting desirable characteristics directly applicable in future technological applications, including biosensors, batteries, fuel cells, and supercapacitors.

The hydrothermal synthesis of nitrogen-doped monolithic carbon aerogels derived from sustainable precursors (i.e.D-glucose and ovalbumin) is presented. The protein acts as nitrogen donor and surface stabilizing agent in this saccharide hydrothermal carbonization, to generate high surface area aerogels (>240 m²g⁻¹) composed of functional continuous large diameter mesopores with excellent hierarchical transport architecture. Post-carbonization treatment controls surface chemistry (e.g. C or N condensation), facilitating tuneable physicochemical properties on a unique continuous 3D carbonaceous pore structure. This highly flexible synthesis lays the basis for the development of a new generation of sustainable (heteroatom-doped) porous carbon aerogels suitable for a range of high value applications.