A series of carbon aerogels doped with iron, cobalt and nickel have been prepared. Metal nanoparticles very well dispersed into the carbon matrix catalyze the formation of graphitic clusters around them. Samples with different Ni content are obtained to test the influence of the metal loading. All aerogels have been characterized to analyze their textural properties, surface chemistry and crystal structures. These metal-doped aerogels have a very well-developed porosity, making their mesoporosity remarkable. Ni-doped aerogels are the ones with the largest surface area and the smallest graphitization. They also present larger mesopore volumes than Co- and Fe-doped aerogels. These materials are tested as electro-catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction. Results show a clear and strong influence of the carbonaceous structure on the whole electro-catalytic behavior of the aerogels. Regarding the type of metal doping, aerogel doped with Co is the most active one, followed by Ni- and Fe-doped aerogels, respectively. As the Ni content is larger, the kinetic current densities increase. Comparatively, among the different doping metals, the results obtained with Ni are especially remarkable.

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Two original series of carbon gels doped with different cobalt loadings and well-developed mesoporosity, aerogels and xerogels, have been prepared, exhaustively characterized, and tested as cathodes for the electro-catalytic reduction of CO 2 to hydrocarbons at atmospheric pressure. Commercial cobalt and graphite sheets have also been tested as cathodes for comparison. All of the doped carbon gels catalyzed the formation of hydrocarbons, at least from type C1 to C4. The catalytic activity depends mainly on the metal loading, nevertheless, the adsorption of a part of the products in the porous structure of the carbon gel cannot be ruled out. Apparent faradaic efficiencies calculated with these developed materials were better that those obtained with a commercial cobalt sheet as a cathode, especially considering the much lower amount of cobalt contained in the Co-doped carbon gels. The cobalt-carbon phases formed in these types of doped carbon gels improve the selectivity to C3-C4 hydrocarbons formation, obtaining even more C3 hydrocarbons than CH 4 in some cases.

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First-principles computation was used to study the effect of pressure on the elastic properties, magnetic properties, optical properties, and electronic structure of the normal spinel magnesium ferrite (MgFe2O4) at different pressures (0, 10, 20, 50, 70, and 100 GPa). The normal spinel MgFe2O4 has a direct bandgap of 1.62 eV which significantly decreased to 0.42 eV with increasing the pressure to 100 GPa. The values of the elastic constants were coherent with the mechanical stability norms for cubic crystals, which revealed that MgFe2O4 was mechanically stable. The values of Pugh’s ratio indicate that MgFe2O4 is ductile at all pressure values except at 100 Gpa MgFe2O4 shows brittle behavior. The computed values of the Zener anisotropy factor at different pressures were not equal to 1.0, which indicates that MgFe2O4 is elastically anisotropic. The optical properties (refractive index, reflectivity, dielectric function, optical conductivity, and loss function) for the normal spinel MgFe2O4, as well as its magnetic moment, were calculated and discussed at different pressures.

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A total of two carbon xerogels doped with cobalt and nickel were prepared by the sol–gel method. The obtained carbon xerogels underwent further surface modification with three binary metal oxides namely: nickel cobaltite, nickel ferrite, and cobalt ferrite through the hydrothermal method. The mesopore volumes of these materials ranged between 0.24 and 0.40 cm3/g. Moreover, there was a morphology transformation for the carbon xerogels doped with nickel cobaltite, which is in the form of nano-needles after the hydrothermal process. Whereas the carbon xerogels doped with nickel ferrite and cobalt ferrite maintained the normal carbon xerogel structure after the hydrothermal process. The prepared materials were tested as electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction using 0.1 M KOH. Among the prepared carbon xerogels cobalt-doped carbon xerogel had better electrocatalytic performance than the nickel-doped ones. Moreover, the carbon xerogels doped with nickel cobaltite showed excellent activity for oxygen reduction reaction due to mesoporosity development. NiCo2O4/Co-CX showed to be the best electrocatalyst of all the prepared electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction application, exhibiting the highest electrocatalytic activity, lowest onset potential Eonset of −0.06 V, and the lowest equivalent series resistance (ESR) of 2.74 Ω.