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Tubular hematite with high-concentration, uniform doping is regarded as a promising material for photoelectrochemical water oxidation. However, the high-temperature annealing commonly used for activating doped hematite inevitably causes deformation of the tubular structure and an increase in the trap states. In the present work, Sn-doped tubular hematite on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) is successfully obtained at 750 °C from a Sn-coated FeOOH tube precursor. Sn/P codoping, which is rarely considered for hematite, is also achieved via a gas phase reaction in phosphide atmosphere. The tubular morphology allows the dopant to diffuse from both the inner and outer surfaces, thus decreasing the doping profile in the radial direction. The even distribution of Sn and P synergetically increases the carrier density of hematite by one order of magnitude, which shortens the width of the depletion layer to ca. 2.3 nm (compared with 19.3 nm for the pristine sample) and leads to prolonged carrier lifetime and efficient charge separation. In addition, this codoping protocol does not introduce additional surface trap states, as evidenced by the increased charge injection efficiency and surface kinetic analysis using intensity modulated photocurrent spectroscopy (IMPS). As a result, the morphology- and doping-engineered hematite exhibits photocurrents of 0.9 mA cm-2 at 1.23 V and 3.8 mA cm-2 at 2.0 V vs. RHE under AM 1.5 G illumination (100 mW cm-2) in 1.0 M NaOH, representing 4.5-fold and 4.8-fold enhancements, respectively, compared with the photocurrents of undoped hematite. The present method is shown to be effective for preparing multi-element-doped hematite nanotubes and may find broad application in the development of other nanotubular photoelectrodes with or without doping for efficient and robust water oxidation.

Pb2Mg(PO4)2, Pb4Zn8(PO4)8 and α-BaZn2(PO4)2 have been synthesized by the standard solid-state reaction and their structures were determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction for the first time. Pb2Mg(PO4)2, Pb4Zn8(PO4)8 and α-BaZn2(PO4)2 crystallize in the monoclinic crystal system, P21/c, C2/c and the trigonal crystal system, Pm1, respectively. The structure of Pb2Mg(PO4)2 possesses a three-dimensional framework consisting of MgO6 octahedra and PO4 tetrahedra and the Pb2+ cations reside in the [Mg6P6O12] tunnels. Pb4Zn8(PO4)8 and α-BaZn2(PO4)2 are two-dimensional layered structures with [Zn4P4O16]∞ layers for Pb4Zn8(PO4)8 and [Zn3P3O12]∞ honeycomb double layers for α-BaZn2(PO4)2. And in the structure of Pb4Zn8(PO4)8, there are four different Zn–P–O layers, which is reported for the first time in zinc phosphates. In addition, thermal property analysis, and UV-Vis-NIR diffuse reflectance and infrared spectroscopy were also performed. First-principles theoretical studies were also conducted to aid the understanding of their band structures and densities of states.

Reaction of 1,3-dipropoxy-p-tert-butyl-calix[4]arene (L(1)H2) with KN(SiMe3)2 afforded a one-dimensional (1D) chain complex [K2L(1)]n (1). Upon reaction with 1 equivalent 18-crown-6, complex 1 can convert to complex [K2(18-crown-6)L(1)] (2) which possesses a sandwich structure. Treatment of two calix[4]arene-crown ligands of 1,3-dihydroxy-p-tert-butyl-calix[4]arene-crown-5 (L(2)H2) and 1,2-dihydroxy-p-tert-butyl-calix[4]arene-crown-5 (L(3)H2) with KN(SiMe3)2 gave the dinuclear complex [K2L(2)] (3) and the mononuclear complex [K(THF)L(3)H] (4), respectively. Complexes 1-4 were all characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction techniques. The variable temperature (1)H NMR spectrum indicates there is a quick rotation equilibrium of the two phenoxy groups in complex 3. In addition, complexes 1-4 have been tested for the ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of rac-lactide and the results showed that complexes 2 and 3 are highly active for the ROP of rac-lactide. The obtained polymers displayed low dispersity values (Đ) and the molecular weights are close to the calculated ones. Furthermore, complexes 2 and 3 show moderate isoselectivities of Pm = 0.67 and Pm = 0.73, respectively.

Xanthone-crown ether (1) reacts with NaClO(4), Mg(ClO(4))(2) and Al(ClO(4))(3) forming the one-dimensional chain dinuclear polymer [Na(2).1.(ClO(4))(2)] (2), the mononuclear complex [Mg.1.(H(2)O)(2)](ClO(4))(2) (3) and an interesting sandwich complex [Al.(1)(2).(H(2)O)(6)](ClO(4))(3) (4) with different ratios of metal-to-ligand, respectively. The anion recognition experiment results show that the magnesium complex (3) is a good colorimetric and fluorescent detector for HSO(4)(-) with high sensitivity and selectivity.