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Exsolution enables the formation of active catalytic nanoparticles, but their thermal stability remains limited. Here, the authors use secondary-electron imaging at atomic resolution to directly visualize the coarsening of exsolved nanoparticles.

Replacing noble metals in heterogeneous catalysts by low-cost and ubiquitous substitutes such as iron is highly desirable especially because it does not bear potential health risks. A low cost and environmentally benign intermetallic compound Al₁₃Fe₄ is now identified as an active and selective semi-hydrogenation catalyst, which could prove to be applicable to a wide range of heterogeneously catalysed reactions.

The scarcity and high price of noble metal catalysts pose critical challenges for the chemical industry, and finding strategies that ensure complete atom efficiency has become a pivotal endeavour. This work introduces the fabrication of amorphous single-layer PtSe_x catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction with high atom-utilization efficiency.

The nature of the active species over Cu/ZnO catalysts for methanol synthesis remains elusive. Here, the authors shed light on the evolution of the nanoparticle/support interface and correlate its structural and chemical transformations with changes in the catalytic performance.

The precise understanding of the active phase under reaction conditions at the molecular level is crucial for the design of improved catalysts. Now, Strasser, Jones and colleagues correlate the high activity of IrNi@IrO_x core–shell nanoparticles with the amount of lattice vacancies produced by the nickel leaching process that takes place before and during water oxidation, and elucidate the underlying structural-electronic effects.

Atomically disperse catalysts can offer promising activity due to the high exposure of active sites. Here, iridium complexes in solution undergo a binding equilibrium with a nickel oxide surface resulting in atomically disperse iridium and high turnover frequencies for oxygen evolution.

Although site-dependent metal surface segregation in bimetallic nanoalloys affects catalytic activity and stability, segregation on shaped nanocatalysts and their atomic-scale evolution is largely unexplored. Pt_xNi_1−x alloy nanoparticle electrocatalysts with unique activity for oxygen reduction reactions exhibit an unexpected compositional segregation structure across the {111} facets.

Biomass can be used to scavenge photogenerated holes in photocatalytic hydrogen production, but the oxidized molecules that form are not always useful products. Here, the authors use Ru-ZnIn₂S₄ to photocatalyse the dehydrogenative C−C coupling of lignocellulose-derived methylfurans, forming both hydrogen and diesel fuel precursors.

Using core–shell particles represents an effective design strategy for improving the performance of noble metal catalysts, but their stabilities can suffer during reactions. Atomically thin Pt shells are shown to stabilize titanium tungsten carbide cores, even at highly oxidizing potentials.

Core-shell particles with thin noble metal shells represent an attractive material class with potential for various applications ranging from catalysis to biomedical applications, but the synthesis of well-defined core-shell architectures remains highly challenging. Here, the authors report the chemically induced self-limiting growth of atomically-thin and homogeneous platinum shells on a variety of gold nanostructures.