β-Tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) has attracted particular attention in bone tissue engineering because of its excellent biocompatibility, absorbability, and osteoinductivity. In the present study, β-TCP nanoparticles (NPs) and triangular cones were synthesized by a coprecipitation method combined with calcination under high temperature. Different carbon materials, including graphene oxide (GO) and activated carbon (AC), were employed as the sacrificed support in order to prevent the sintering and agglomeration during high temperature calcination. Monodispersed β-TCP NPs were obtained using GO as the sacrificed support, while β-TCP triangular cones were obtained using AC as the sacrificed support. GO not only provided anchoring sites for the nucleation and growth of the precursor through numerous oxygen-containing functional groups on the surface of nanosheets, but also promoted the nucleation and growth of β-TCP NPs by decreasing phase transformation temperature and time due to excellent thermal conductivity. These results provide a novel strategy using GO as the sacrificed support for the high-temperature synthesis of β-TCP NPs and other nanomaterials.

FePt nanoparticles (NPs)/reduced graphene oxide (rG-O) composites have been synthesized using a one-pot strategy without surfactants. Monodisperse FePt NPs were homogenously loaded onto rG-O sheets. By controlling the concentration of dispersed graphene oxide (GO), uniform FePt flower-like nanoclusters can be obtained. FePt/rG-O composites exhibited exceptionally high electrocatalytic performance in the activity and durability for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), much superior to that of the commercial Pt/C (60%). The straightforward synthesis of FePt/rG-O composites provides a low-cost and high performance catalyst for the ORR, which is also a promising strategy for the synthesis of various Pt-based bimetallic alloy/rG-O composites for potential uses in catalysis and energy fields.

Ternary transition metal oxides are the important alternatives to commercial graphite for future lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). In this work, porous Co2FeO4 octahedral structures were synthesized by annealing the precursor from hydrothermal process, and the electrochemical properties of the samples as anode for LIBs were studied. Electrochemical measurements demonstrate that porous Co2FeO4 structures with octahedral shape display remarkably high discharge capacity, which is even slightly higher than the theoretical value of Co2FeO4. The specific capacity retention of Co2FeO4 porous structure annealed at 700 °C reaches ca. 96.4% of that in the first cycle after 50 cycles. It is expected that the as-synthesized porous Co2FeO4 octahedrons can be a promising anode material for LIBs.

A facile and bioinspired synthesis of ZnO hierarchical architectures, including prismlike and flowerlike structures and crytalline and noncrystalline hollow microspheres, has been developed using the amino acid histidine as the directing and assembling agent. The histidine molecules play different roles in the formation of ZnO hierarchical architectures due to the competitive coordination between histidine and OH− to Zn2+ when the reactant molar ratios are adjusted. The resulting architectures are characterized using field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high-resolution TEM (HRTEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectoscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Morphology- and phase-dependent photoluminescence of the ZnO architectures has been shown. In particularly, a novel photocatalytic activity of the ZnO hierarchical architectures for the reaction of the formaldehyde and carbon dioxide has been demonstrated, probably through mechanisms involving an oxidative coupling reaction and hydrolyzation process.