{"id":716219,"date":"2026-06-05T06:47:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T06:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/716219\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T06:47:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T06:47:07","slug":"atomic-reshuffle-paves-way-for-record-breaking-catalysts-for-hydrogen-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/716219\/","title":{"rendered":"Atomic reshuffle paves way for record-breaking catalysts for hydrogen production"},"content":{"rendered":"

Researchers\u00a0have\u00a0discovered\u00a0that atoms can be mixed,\u00a0separated\u00a0and\u00a0recombined\u00a0within the same experiment, providing a pathway to\u00a0a record-breaking\u00a0catalyst for green hydrogen production<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the\u00a0study,\u00a0the team\u00a0created\u00a0nanoscale particles\u00a0containing\u00a0only a few dozen platinum and nickel atoms and\u00a0observed\u00a0unusual dynamic behaviour in direct space and in real time.\u00a0As\u00a0the two metals separate\u00a0from one another,\u00a0while\u00a0maintaining\u00a0an interface, they become highly active for electrochemical water splitting, leading to efficient hydrogen evolution.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The project is led by the University of Nottingham in collaboration with the\u00a0University of Birmingham, Diamond Light Source, and Ulm University in Germany. The\u00a0study\u00a0has been\u00a0published\u00a0today\u00a0in\u00a0Advanced\u00a0Materials.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dr\u00a0Jesum\u00a0Alves Fernandes,\u00a0in the School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham, who led the research team, said: \u201cWhat makes this discovery exciting is that we can reversibly tune the structure of the\u00a0particle\u00a0while directly\u00a0observing\u00a0the process at the atomic scale. This opens a new strategy for designing adaptive catalysts for\u00a0a wide range of applications.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

When milk is added to coffee, the two substances\u00a0mix\u00a0together\u00a0effortlessly\u00a0and cannot\u00a0spontaneously\u00a0separate.\u00a0This process is\u00a0dictated\u00a0by the second law of thermodynamics, which\u00a0regulates\u00a0the\u00a0behaviour\u00a0of molecules and atoms, leading\u00a0to\u00a0an\u00a0increase in entropy,\u00a0or a measure of disorder.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dr Emerson Kohlrausch,\u00a0who\u00a0led experimental\u00a0work in\u00a0the University of Nottingham\u2019s School of Chemistry,\u00a0said,\u00a0\u201cInitially, when we\u00a0looked at the platinum-nickel\u00a0nanoparticles\u00a0under the electron microscope, we\u00a0saw that the two types of atoms are mixed, as one would expect in an alloy. However, only a few seconds later,\u00a0the two metals started to separate from each other\u00a0in front of our eyes.\u00a0This was an astonishing observation, as it\u00a0appeared to\u00a0go\u00a0against\u00a0conventional\u00a0thermodynamic\u00a0behaviours.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

To\u00a0image a material by electron microscopy, the atoms\u00a0must\u00a0interact with a beam of fast electrons, which can\u00a0transfer\u00a0some of their energy to\u00a0the atoms\u00a0in the sample.\u00a0This stimulates atoms to reshuffle\u00a0in the\u00a0particle\u00a0to occupy new positions, which, in the case of intermetallic platinum-nickel,\u00a0leads to\u00a0the\u00a0separation of the metals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As soon as nickel is separated from platinum,\u00a0it picks up oxygen atoms\u00a0from the environment,\u00a0forming\u00a0an oxide. \u201cThis results in\u00a0nanoparticles\u00a0made of two\u00a0halves \u2013 platinum metal and nickel oxide, separated by\u00a0an atomically defined interface.\u00a0We\u00a0create new types of hybrid particles and\u00a0observe\u00a0their\u00a0formation\u00a0in realtime, which\u00a0is unprecedented,\u201d says\u00a0Professor Andrei Khlobystov, Professor of Nanomaterials\u00a0at the University of Nottingham,\u00a0who\u00a0champions\u00a0the use of\u00a0electron microscopy for imaging chemical reactions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The team\u00a0utilised\u00a0the electron beam as\u00a0both\u00a0an imaging tool and\u00a0a\u00a0source of energy for chemical reactions in the past,\u00a0demonstrating\u00a0the first\u00a0real-time observation of chemical bond breaking and forming,\u00a0and\u00a0crystal nucleation.\u00a0Professor Ute Kaiser,\u00a0who\u00a0led\u00a0the SALVE\u00a0project that developed a unique\u00a0microscope\u00a0for these experiments\u00a0at Ulm\u00a0University, Germany,\u00a0said: \u201cIt is important to create conditions under which we can track positions of every atom.\u00a0To achieve this,\u00a0we employed the thinnest possible material to support\u00a0the\u00a0nanoparticles\u00a0\u2013 the\u00a0graphene sheet, and carefully controlled electron beam energy and flux.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Remarkably, the metals can be\u00a0mixed together\u00a0again if the conditions are changed,\u00a0forming an alloy, and the\u00a0same\u00a0process can be repeated several times.\u00a0Dr Emerson Kohlrausch said, \u201cRather than behaving like rigid solid objects, the particles\u00a0appeared to\u00a0behave like living creatures,\u00a0responding\u00a0to the\u00a0environment.\u00a0This inspired us to\u00a0harness\u00a0their dynamics\u00a0for catalysis\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The researchers explored\u00a0platinum-nickel particles for hydrogen production\u00a0via\u00a0electrochemical\u00a0water\u00a0splitting. They showed that the metal separation\u00a0process\u00a0discovered in the electron microscope also\u00a0occurs\u00a0under the reaction conditions.\u00a0Dr\u00a0Jesum\u00a0Alves Fernandes said,\u00a0\u201cWhat makes these particles so effective is the cooperation between the two materials after separation. Platinum and nickel oxide each perform\u00a0different\u00a0roles\u00a0in water splitting, and\u00a0sharing an atomic boundary\u00a0enables the ultimate cooperation between\u00a0them.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The cooperative effect\u00a0boosts\u00a0the hydrogen production from water, making this\u00a0material one of the most effective catalysts for water splitting.\u00a0Beyond hydrogen production, the findings could influence the future design of catalysts for energy conversion, chemical manufacturing, and sustainable industrial processes.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Researchers\u00a0have\u00a0discovered\u00a0that atoms can be mixed,\u00a0separated\u00a0and\u00a0recombined\u00a0within the same experiment, providing a pathway to\u00a0a record-breaking\u00a0catalyst for green hydrogen production.\u00a0 In…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49,48,66],"class_list":["post-716219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}