The hydrogenation of nitriles to amines represents an important and frequently used industrial process due to the broad applicability of the resulting products in chemistry and life sciences. Despite the existing portfolio of catalysts reported for the hydrogenation of nitriles, the development of iron-based heterogeneous catalysts for this process is still a challenge. Here, we show that the impregnation and pyrolysis of iron(II) acetate on commercial silica produces a reusable Fe/Fe–O@SiO2 catalyst with a well-defined structure comprising the fayalite phase at the Si–Fe interface and α-Fe nanoparticles, covered by an ultrathin amorphous iron(III) oxide layer, growing from the silica matrix. These Fe/Fe–O core–shell nanoparticles, in the presence of catalytic amounts of aluminium additives, promote the hydrogenation of all kinds of nitriles, including structurally challenging and functionally diverse aromatic, heterocyclic, aliphatic and fatty nitriles, to produce primary amines under scalable and industrially viable conditions.

Two new two-stage manipulation protocols, namely light- and temperature-assisted spin state annealing (LASSA/TASSA), are applied to a spin crossover coordination polymer, [Fe(isoq)2{Au(CN)2}2], revealing the hidden multistability of spin states.

Zero-valent iron nanoparticles (nZVI) treated by reduced sulfur compounds (i.e., sulfidated nZVI, S-nZVI) have attracted increased attention as promising materials for environmental remediation. While the preparation of S-nZVI and its reactions with various groundwater contaminants such as trichloroethylene (TCE) were already a subject of several studies, nanoparticle synthesis procedures investigated so far were suited mainly for laboratory-scale preparation with only a limited possibility of easy and cost-effective large-scale production and FeS shell property control. This study presents a novel approach for synthesizing S-nZVI using commercially available nZVI particles that are treated with sodium sulfide in a concentrated slurry. This leads to S-nZVI particles that do not contain hazardous boron residues and can be easily prepared off-site. The resulting S-nZVI exhibits a core–shell structure where zero-valent iron is the dominant phase in the core, while the shell contains mostly amorphous iron sulfides. The average FeS shell thickness can be controlled by the applied sulfide concentration. Up to a 12-fold increase in the TCE removal and a 7-fold increase in the electron efficiency were observed upon amending nZVI with sulfide. Although the FeS shell thickness correlated with surface-area-normalized TCE removal rates, sulfidation negatively impacted the particle surface area, resulting in an optimal FeS shell thickness of approximately 7.3 nm. This corresponded to a particle S/Fe mass ratio of 0.0195. At all sulfide doses, the TCE degradation products were only fully dechlorinated hydrocarbons. Moreover, a nearly 100% chlorine balance was found at the end of the experiments, further confirming complete TCE degradation and the absence of chlorinated transformation products. The newly synthesized S-nZVI particles thus represent a promising remedial agent applicable at sites contaminated with TCE.

Nitriding has been used for decades to improve the corrosion resistance of iron and steel materials. Moreover, iron nitrides (Fe x N) have been shown to give an outstanding catalytic performance in a wide range of applications. We demonstrate that nitriding also substantially enhances the reactivity of zerovalent iron nanoparticles (nZVI) used for groundwater remediation, alongside reducing particle corrosion. Two different types of Fe x N nanoparticles were synthesized by passing gaseous NH 3 /N 2 mixtures over pristine nZVI at elevated temperatures. The resulting particles were composed mostly of face-centered cubic (γ′-Fe 4 N) and hexagonal close-packed (ε-Fe 2−3 N) arrangements. Nitriding was found to increase the particles' water contact angle and surface availability of iron in reduced forms. The two types of Fe x N nanoparticles showed a 20-and 5-fold increase in the trichloroethylene (TCE) dechlorination rate, compared to pristine nZVI, and about a 3-fold reduction in the hydrogen evolution rate. This was related to a low energy barrier of 27.0 kJ mol −1 for the first dechlorination step of TCE on the γ′-Fe 4 N(001) surface, as revealed by density functional theory calculations with an implicit solvation model. TCE dechlorination experiments with aged particles showed that the γ′-Fe 4 N nanoparticles retained high reactivity even after three months of aging. This combined theoretical-experimental study shows that Fe x N nanoparticles represent a new and potentially important tool for TCE dechlorination.

The 1:1:1 reaction of DyCl 3 •6H 2 O, K 3 [Co(CN) 6 ] and bpyO 2 in H 2 O has provided access to a complex with formula [DyCo-(CN) 2) was also precipitated (also in a high yield) using K 3 [Fe(CN) 6 ] instead of K 3 [Co(CN) 6 ]. Their structures have been determined by single-crystal X-ray crystallography and characterized based on elemental analyses and IR spectra. Combined direct current (dc) and alternating current (ac) magnetic susceptibility revealed slow magnetic relaxation upon application of a dc field. μ-SQUID measurements and CASSCF calculations revealed high-temperature relaxation dynamics for both compounds. Lowtemperature magnetic studies show the relaxation characteristics for 1, while for compound 2 the dynamics corresponds to an antiferromagnetically coupled Dy••• Fe pair. High-resolution optical studies have been carried out to investigate the performance of compounds 1 and 2 as luminescence thermometers. For 1, a maximum thermal sensitivity of 1.84% K −1 at 70 K has been calculated, which is higher than the acceptable sensitivity boundary of 1% K −1 for high-performance luminescence thermometers in a broad range of temperature between 40 and 140 K. Further optical studies focused on the chromaticity diagram of compound 1 revealed a temperature shift from warm white (3200 K) at 10 K toward a more natural white color near 4000 K at room temperature.

The diamagnetic two-dimensional Hofmann-type metal–organic framework [ZnII(2-mpz)2Ni­(CN)4] has been successfully synthesized along with its isostructural hysteretic spin-crossover FeII analogue in the form of both bulk microcrystalline powder and nanoparticles. Detailed atomic force microscopy topographic study revealed a nanogrowth relationship between the height and length of the nanoparticle.

Space-weathering as well as shock effects can darken meteorite and asteroid reflectance spectra. We present a detailed comparative study on shock-darkening and space-weathering using different lithologies of the Chelyabinsk LL5 chondrite. Compared to space-weathering, the shock processes do not cause significant spectral slope changes and are more efficient in attenuating the orthopyroxene 2 μm absorption band. This results in a distinct shock vector in the reflectance spectra principal component analysis, moving the shocked silicate-rich Chelyabinsk spectra from the S-complex space into the C/X complex. In contrast to this, the space-weathering vector stays within the S complex, moving from Q type to S type. Moreover, the 2 μm to 1 μm band depth ratio (BDR) as well as the 2 μm to 1 μm band area ratio (BAR) are not appreciably affected by shock-darkening or shock melting. Space-weathering, however, causes significant shifts in both BDR and BAR toward higher values. Application of the BDR method to the three distinct areas on the asteroid Itokawa reveals that Itokawa is rather uniformly space-weathered and not influenced by regolith roughness or relative albedo changes.

Supercapacitors are a promising energy storage technology owing to their unparalleled power and lifetime. However, to meet the continuously rising demands of energy storage, they must be equipped with higher energy densities. For this purpose, the seamless integration of metal oxides on carbon matrices, such as iron oxides/oxyhydroxides, has been pursued through hydrothermal, atomic layer and electro-deposition methods directly on current collectors. Nevertheless, such methods present limited compatibility with commercial paste-coating processes on the current collectors. Furthermore, iron oxides/oxyhydroxides lack conductivity and are hydrophilic, operating with low-voltage aqueous electrolytes, limiting their power and energy and requiring corrosion-resistant H 2 O current collectors. To mitigate these challenges, a seamless and paste-ready material is successfully developed through a 15 min wet-chemical method, via the coordination of ultrasmall β-FeOOH (akaganéite) nanoparticles to the nitrile groups of a covalent graphene derivative. Endowed with graphene-like impedance response and very high wettability in organic electrolytes, combined high power and energy densities are obtained, with respect to the total mass of both electrode materials and current collectors, overcoming the identified challenges. This offers future prospects for the exploration of alternative molecular handles for improved interfaces and their application in different energy-storage chemistries.