Enhancement of near-infrared (NIR) to visible upconversion efficiencies of lanthanide-doped phosphors remains one of the challenging materials science issues. In the present study, a Yb3+/Er3+/Tm3+-doped BiVO4 composite with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene oxide (GO) was synthesised by a hydrothermal method assisted by a microwave technique and thoroughly characterised. The resultant hybrid material has a twenty-fold increase in upconversion quantum yield compared to pristine BiVO4, as well as a significantly superior long-term photostability. Integration of carbonaceous nanomaterials enables improved energy transfer routes and reduced non-absorptive losses, which provide a large-scale approach towards the next-generation photonic and optoelectronic technologies.
The search for efficient, earth-abundant electrocatalysts for water splitting has spurred significant interest in coordination polymers, particularly those incorporating redox-active units. Herein, we discuss two isostructural, ferrocene-bridged nickel and cobalt coordination polymers (CPs) synthesized via a solvothermal route using 1,1 '-ferrocenylenebis(H-phosphinic) acid and 1,2-di(pyridin-4-yl)ethene linkers. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction of the cobalt-based framework confirms a robust three-dimensional structure with rod-like morphology, as corroborated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) reveals that both Ni- and Co-CPs exhibit virtually identical diffraction patterns before catalysis, verifying their isostructural nature. With an identical ferrocene ligand, the nature of the framework metal node strongly dictates how the polymers respond to anodic stress, leading to different OER kinetics and long-term stability. These findings emphasize the need for deeper structure-property correlations when designing ferrocene-bridged coordination polymers for water splitting and raise provocative questions about the practical trade-offs between crystallinity and electrocatalytic activity in future CP-based catalyst design.
Chemistry Education Research has transformed how we understand and improve student learning in general and organic chemistry, but inorganic chemistry remains understudied. This gap persists even though inorganic instruction involves complex representational demands, spatial reasoning, abstract formalisms, and instructional traditions that shape how students experience the subject. Using molecular symmetry as a case study, this contribution argues that research on teaching and learning must attend more closely to inorganic chemistry. We outline how challenges in student cognition, instructional design, representational tools, and instructor assumptions interact in ways that affect learning but remain poorly understood. Drawing on frameworks from cognitive psychology and learning sciences, we highlight the need for systematic, discipline-specific investigations into how students learn and how instructors teach key inorganic concepts. Finally, we offer a research agenda that extends beyond symmetry to areas like bonding theory, coordination chemistry, and solid-state structures. By investing in a robust teaching and learning research program for inorganic chemistry, we can develop instructional strategies grounded in empirical evidence, improving student learning and supporting the evolution of the discipline.
