HfN Nanoparticles: An Unexplored Catalyst for the Electrocatalytic Oxygen Evolution Reaction.

Water electrolysis is one of the most promising methods to produce H and O as high potential fuels. Comparing the two half-reactions, the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is the more difficult to be optimized and still relies on expensive noble metal-based catalysts such as Ru or Ir. In this paper, we prepared nanoparticles of HfN and Hf ON and tested them for the OER for the first time.

Non-conventional Ce:YAG nanostructures via urea complexes.

Ce:YAG nanostructures (Ce:YAG = Cerium in Yttrium Aluminium Garnet), easy to control and shape, have been prepared via templating approach using natural and synthetic materials (i.e. paper, cotton wool and glass wool) previously soaked with a gel-like metals precursor and then thermally treated to achieve the wished morphology.

Iron Carbide@Carbon Nanocomposites: A Tool Box of Functional Materials.

Iron carbide (Fe₃C) is a ceramic magnetic material with high potential for applications in different fields, including catalysis, medicine imaging, coatings, and sensors. Despite its interesting properties, it is still somehow largely unexplored, probably due to challenging synthetic conditions. In this contribution, we present a sol-gel-based method that allows preparing different Fe₃C@C nanocomposites with tailored properties for specific applications, in particular, we have focused on and discussed potential uses for adsorption of noxious gas and waste removal.