Well-Defined Iron Sites in Crystalline Carbon Nitride.

Carbon nitride materials can be hosts for transition metal sites, but Mössbauer studies on iron complexes in carbon nitrides have always shown a mixture of environments and oxidation states. Here we describe the synthesis and characterization of a crystalline carbon nitride with stoichiometric iron sites that all have the same environment. The material (formula CNHFeLiCl, abbreviated PTI/FeCl) is derived from reacting poly(triazine imide)·LiCl (PTI/LiCl) with a low-melting FeCl/KCl flux, followed by anaerobic rinsing with methanol. X-ray diffraction, X-ray absorption and Mössbauer spectroscopies, and SQUID magnetometry indicate that there are tetrahedral high-spin iron(II) sites throughout the material, all having the same geometry. The material is active for electrocatalytic nitrate reduction to ammonia, with a production rate of . 0.1 mmol cm h and Faradaic efficiency of . 80% at -0.80 V vs RHE.