Nanoburgers with promising flaws

DESY team finds surprising defects in tiny metal particles, which could stimulate the development of more efficient catalysts

27-Jun-2025 - Catalysts are indispensable in many industries: they speed up chemical reactions, making them economically viable. They often consist of tiny particles, just a few nanometres across, to which molecules attach themselves, making it easier for them to form a bond with another reagent. The catalysts ...

Precision landing in the atomic lattice - new ways to improve catalysis and gas detection

Innovative combination of methods allows precise localization of individual atoms in ultra-thin materials

12-Jun-2025 - A research team from the University of Vienna and Vienna University of Technology has succeeded in incorporating individual platinum atoms into an ultra-thin material in a targeted manner - and for the first time, has been able to demonstrate with atomic precision which position they occupy in ...

Critical raw materials from electrolysers back into the cycle

Researchers succeed in recycling functional materials for hydrogen production

13-May-2025 - Hydrogen plays a central role in the energy transition. The gas is mainly produced with the help of electrolysers. This process requires critical raw materials such as platinum group metals, rare earths or nickel as catalysts. Researchers at the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource ...

Solving the case of the missing platinum

25-Feb-2025 - For nearly two decades, scientists have tried to understand how negatively polarized platinum electrodes corrode, a costly mystery that plagues water electrolyzers, a promising energy technology for making hydrogen, as well as electrochemical sensors using platinum electrodes. Now, a close ...

Environmentally friendly and cost-effective electrolysers thanks to new MEA

Up to 95 percent less iridium, no PFAS: Spin-off elementarhy achieves first successes

11-Jul-2024 - A membrane electrode assembly (MEA) developed at the Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology (INP) in Greifswald, Germany can save up to 95 percent of the rare metal iridium in electrolysers. The technology also eliminates the use of per- and polyfluorinated chemicals (PFAS), making ...

Scientists mix and match properties to make new superconductor with chiral structure

Fine tuning crystal symmetry and superconductivity using solid solution methods

06-Feb-2024 - Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have created a new superconductor with a chiral crystalline structure by mixing two materials, one with superconductivity but no chirality, another with chirality but no superconductivity. The new platinum-iridium-zirconium compound transitions to a ...

The trio - nickel, palladium, and platinum - for enhanced hydrogen evolution

24-Aug-2023 - According to data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, there were approximately 30,000 hydrogen-powered vehicles registered by 2022, representing a threefold increase compared to 2018. However, the country only has 135 hydrogen fueling stations. In order to enhance the ...

Producing ‘green’ energy — literally — from living plant ‘bio-solar cells’

Scientists have turned to photosynthesis to generate current

15-Dec-2022 - Though plants can serve as a source of food, oxygen and décor, they’re not often considered to be a good source of electricity. But by collecting electrons naturally transported within plant cells, scientists can generate electricity as part of a “green,” biological solar cell. Now, researchers ...

Going platinum: A non-toxic catalyst for clean, re-usable water

New treatment for harmful aldehydes in wastewater

20-Jun-2022 - Platinum has set a new “gold standard” in jewelry, and now it’s about to upscale the quality of your water. As wastewater treatment for potable – drinkable – reuse becomes a more viable and popular option to address water shortages, the question of what harmful byproducts might form in treatment ...

Double-layered catalyst generates more hydrogen

17-Jun-2022 - Ang butter bread, made by layering butter and red bean spread, creates a new flavor by combining the softness of butter and sweetness of red beans. Hydrogen-generating catalysts can also create synergistic effects when different materials are layered with their unique properties. Recently, a ...