Under inert gas flow and high temperature, carbonization of aluminum‐based metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) was carried out. The formation rate of carbonized MOFs (CMOFs) was monitored by the variation of the Raman D band to G band intensity ratio with heat treatment duration. Powder x‐ray diffraction (PXRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) techniques were used to confirm the formation of CMOFs. The activation energy was extracted from the temperature‐dependent rate constants using the Arrhenius equation and correlated with the structural properties of precursor MOFs such as pore size and the number of carbon atoms per ligand. A reaction mechanism is proposed and discussed for the formation of CMOFs based on Raman observation. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Six new isostructural compounds, with the formulas of La3Fe0.5GeSe7, La3MnGaSe7, Ce3Fe0.5SiSe7, Ce3Mn0.5SiSe7, Sm3Fe0.5SiSe7 and Sm3Mn0.5GeSe7, have been successfully synthesized via molten salt method. Their structures are determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction and they crystallize in the Ce6Al3.33S14 structure type (space group: P63, Pearson symbol: hP24). Pure phases of the Ce3Fe0.5SiSe7, Ce3Mn0.5SiSe7, Sm3Fe0.5SiSe7 and Sm3Mn0.5GeSe7 compounds were obtained by solid state reaction and were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), ultraviolet-visible light (UV-Vis) spectroscope, and magnetization measurements. The Ce3Fe0.5SiSe7 and Ce3Mn0.5SiSe7 compounds show paramagnetic domination accompanied by antiferromagnetic contributions, while the Sm3Mn0.5GeSe7 and Sm3Fe0.5SiSe7 compounds show anti-ferromagnetic phase transitions with Néel temperatures of 13K and 24K, respectively. Optical measurements reveal that all of the four compounds can absorb most of visible light. These four compounds also show photo response properties with the photocurrent densities of 81, 1.3, 1.8 and 0.8 µA⋅cm -2 , respectively. 34 Hence, in this work, we report six new rare earth selenides, containing magnetic active d-block elements (Mn, Fe) of the Ln

Synthesis, Structure, Magnetic and Photoelectric Properties of Ln 3M0.5M'Se7 (Ln: La, Ce, Sm; M: Fe, Mn; M': Si, Ge) and La 3MnGaSe7. -The isostructural compounds La 3Fe0.5GeSe7 (I), La3MnGaSe7 (II), Ce3Fe0.5SiSe7 (III), Ce3Mn0.5SiSe7 (IV), Sm3Fe0.5SiSe7 (V), and Sm3Mn0.5GeSe7 (VI) are prepared by melting of the elements in a KI flux (C-coated evacuated silica tubes, 1273 K, 3 d). All the compounds crystallize with the Ce 6Al3.33S14-type structure (space group P63, Z = 2, single crystal XRD). The structure contains chains of face-sharing [MSe 6] octahedra and isolated [M'Se4] tetrahedra in the channels of a three-dimensional network of Ln and Se. Pure polycrystalline phases (III) and (IV) prepared by melting and annealing the elements without a flux show paramagnetic domination accompanied by antiferromagnetic contributions, while (V) and (VI) show anti-ferromagnetic phase transitions with Neel temperatures of 13 and 24 K, respectively. Most of the visible light is absorbed by compounds (III)-(VI) and the photocurrent densities are 81, 1.3, 1.8, and 0.8 A/cm 2 under 1 V of external voltage, respectively. -(HE, J.; WANG, Z.; ZHANG, X.; CHENG, Y.; GONG, Y.; LAI, X.; ZHENG, C.; LIN, J.; HUANG*, F.; RSC Adv. 5 (2015) 65, 52629-52635, http://dx.