Activated carbons with high volumetric capacitance are prepared from apricot shell by optimizing the carbonization temperature prior to NaOH activation to balance the porosity and density. The carbonization temperature has a marked effect on both the pore structure and the electrochemical performances of the activated carbons. As the carbonization temperature increases, the specific surface area and gravimetric capacitance of the carbons decrease, while the apparent electrode density increases. Moderate carbonization at 500 °C results in not only high gravimetric capacitance (339 F g−1) but also high apparent electrode density (0.504 g cm−3), and hence a highest volumetric capacitance of 171 F cm−3 in 6 mol L−1 KOH aqueous electrolyte is obtained. The activated carbons also show good rate capability.

S–N co-doped anatase nanosized TiO2 photocatalyst was successfully prepared by simple sol–gel method. The samples were characterized by XRD, XPS, UV–Vis. From the results of UV–Vis, a red shift of the absorption edge was brought out owing to the S and N codoping. XPS and UV–Vis studies revealed that N and S were in situ codoped in the lattice of TiO2 and the absorbance in visible light region decreased with the calcination temperature increased. The photocatalytic activity was evaluated by the photocatalytic oxidation of penicillin solution under visible light irradiation. The results show that visible-light induced photocatalytic activities of the as-prepared TiO2 powders were improved by S–N copoing. The high activity of S–N co-doped TiO2 can be related to the results of the synergetic effects of strong absorption in the UV–Vis region, red shift in adsorption edge.