Enhancing electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction to ammonia with rare earth (La, Y, Sc) on high-index faceted platinum alloy concave nanocubes

Surface structure effect is the key subject in electrocatalysis, and consists of the structure dependence of interaction between reaction molecules and catalyst surface in specifying the surface atomic arrangement, chemical...

Electrochemical Recovery and Behaviors of Rare Earth (La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, and Yb) Ions on Ni Sheets

The electrochemical behaviors of rare earth (RE) ions have extensively been studied because of their high potential applications to the reprocessing of used nuclear fuels and RE-containing materials. In the present study, we fully investigated the electrochemical behaviors of RE(III) (La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, and Yb) ions over a Ni sheet electrode in 0.1 M NaClO4 electrolyte solution by cyclic voltammetry between +0.5 and −1.5 V (vs. Ag/AgCl). Amperometry electrodeposition experiments were performed between −1.2 and −0.9 V to recover RE elements over the Ni sheet. The successfully RE-recovered Ni sheets were fully characterized by scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and photoluminescence spectroscopy. The newly reported recovery data for RE(III) ions over a metal electrode provide valuable information on the development of the treatment methods of RE elements.

Chemical Synthesis of Rare Earth (La, Gd) Doped Cobalt Ferrite and a Comparative Analysis of Their Magnetic Properties

Lanthanum (La) and gadolinium (Gd) doped cobalt ferrite nanoparticles are synthesized using a soft chemical approach. The analysis of these ferrites using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) shows that lattice spacing decreases in the doped ferrite samples. Magnetization data indicates towards the decrease of saturation magnetisation but increase in coercivity with doping. Mössbauer spectroscopy measurements at room temperature indicate increased occupancy of trivalent cations at tetrahedral site. The addition of rare earth dopants reduces the hard-magnetic character of cobalt ferrite.