A tale of two catalyst surfaces (IMAGE)
Caption
An illustration combines two possible types of surface layers for a catalyst that performs the water-splitting reaction, the first step in making hydrogen fuel. The gray surface, top, is lanthanum oxide. The colorful surface is nickel oxide. A study led by researchers at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University discovered that a rearrangement of atoms in the nickel oxide surface while carrying out the reaction made it twice as efficient, a phenomenon they hope to harness to design better catalysts. Lanthanum atoms are depicted in green, nickel in blue and oxygen in red.
Credit
CUBE3D Graphic
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