In this work, we report the synthesis and assessment of a new non-precious-metal oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalyst from pyrolysis of an iron-coordinated complex which manifests superior activity in both alkaline and acidic media. 11,11'-bis(dipyrido[3,2-a:2',3'-c]phenazinyl) (bidppz) was selected as a ligand for the formation of a nitrogen-rich iron-coordinated coordination polymer (Fe-bidppz) which forms a self-supporting catalyst containing high densities of nitrogen and iron doping by pyrolysis. The catalyst pyrolyzed at 800 °C (Fe-N/C-800) shows the highest ORR activity with onset and half-wave potentials of 923 and 809 mV in 0.1 M KOH, respectively, which are comparable to those of Pt/C (half-wave potential 818 mV vs RHE) at the same catalyst loading. Besides, the Fe-N/C-800 catalyst has an excellent ORR activity with onset and half-wave potentials only 38 and 59 mV less than those of the Pt/C catalyst in 0.1 M HClO4. The optimal Fe-N/C-800 catalyst displays much greater durability and tolerance of methanol than Pt/C. We propose that the Fe-N/C-800 catalyst has a considerably high density of surface active sites because Fe-N/C-800 possesses excellent ORR activity while its specific surface area is not so high. Electrochemical measurements show that the Fe-N/C-800 catalyst in KOH and HClO4 follows the effective four-electron-transfer pathway.

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A simple hydrothermal method has been developed for the systematic synthesis of lanthanide orthophosphate crystals with different crystalline phases and morphologies. It has been shown that pure LnPO(4) compounds change structure with decreasing Ln ionic radius: i.e., the orthophosphates from Ho to Lu as well as Y exist only in the tetragonal zircon (xenotime) structure, while the orthophosphates from La to Dy exist in the hexagonal structure under hydrothermal treatment. The obtained hexagonal structured lanthanide orthophosphate LnPO(4) (Ln = La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, and Dy) products have a wirelike morphology. In contrast, tetragonal LnPO(4) (Ln = Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu, Y) samples prepared under the same experimental conditions consist of nanoparticles. The obtained hexagonal LnPO(4) (Ln = La --> Tb) can convert to the monoclinic monazite structured products, and their morphologies remained the same after calcination at 900 degrees C in air (Hexagonal DyPO(4) is an exceptional case, it transformed to tetragonal DyPO(4) by calcination), while the tetragonal structure for (Ho--> Lu, Y)PO(4) remains unchanged by calcination. The resulting LnPO(4) (Ln = La --> Dy) products consist almost entirely of nanowires/nanorods with diameters of 5-120 nm and lengths ranging from several hundreds of nanometers to several micrometers. Europium doped LaPO(4) nanowires were also prepared, and their photoluminescent properties were reported. The optical absorption spectrum of CePO(4) nanowires was measured and showed some differences from that of bulk CePO(4) materials. The possible growth mechanism of lanthanide phosphate nanowires was explored in detail. X-ray diffraction, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, electron diffraction, infrared absorption spectra, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, optical absorption spectra, and photoluminescence spectra have been employed to characterize these materials.