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Hydrogen production via proton exchange membrane water electrolysis is limited by the high cost and scarcity of iridium catalysts. By doping lanthanum into cobalt oxide, the authors anchor iridium atoms within the oxide lattice, boosting oxygen evolution activity and stability and reducing iridium loading.

A purely organic crystalline two-dimensional mechanically interlocked polymer comprising [c2]daisy chain units forms via preorganized crystallization and thiol–ene click chemistry. This polymer network can be exfoliated to give nanosheets with a 47-fold stiffness enhancement relative to the bulk parent.

Copper-based catalysts are traditionally very effective for the hydrogenation of CO₂ to methanol, although control over the active site has remained elusive. Here, the authors design a Cu₁/ZrO₂ single-atom catalyst featuring a Cu₁–O₃ site responsible for a remarkable performance at 180 °C.

Precious-metal-free catalysts for water oxidation commonly suffer from low stability in acidic electrolytes. Now, by controlling the intergrowth of the γ-MnO₂ structure, it has been possible to achieve 2 A cm⁻² at 2 V and a stability of over 1,000 hours at 200 mA cm⁻² in a polymer electrolyte membrane electrolyser.

Elemental immiscibility limits the development of solid solution materials. Here, authors create a nonequilibrium flame aerosol method to mix nearly any pair of metal elements in a single-phase nano-ceramic. Also, an exsolution behavior is presented to produce active and stable nanoparticles.

By creating nanosized grains and defects in lanthanum trihydride, its electronic conductivity can be suppressed, transforming it into a superionic conductor at −40 °C with a record high H⁻ conductivity.

Great progress has been made in the development of bifunctional oxide-zeolite catalysts to tackle the selectivity challenge in syngas chemistry. Here the authors show syngas conversion can be steered along a highly active and selective pathway towards light olefins via ketene acetate (acetyl) intermediates.

A simple water soaking treatment significantly weakened the strong covalent metal-support interaction between the atomically dispersed Pt and CoFe₂O₄, which leads to an enhanced activity towards methane combustions by 55 times. This work highlights the critical role of altering the coordination structure of single-atom active sites and provides a new strategy to modulate metal-support interaction regulation.

Semi-hydrogenation of acetylene in excess ethylene is a key industrial process for ethylene purification. Here the authors develop highly stable Pd1/TiO2 single-atom catalyst for photo-thermo semi-hydrogenation of acetylene.

Polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolysis is more efficient than its alkaline counterpart, but its implementation, in part, hinges on developing Earth-abundant catalysts that are active and stable for the oxygen evolution reaction in acid. Now, it is shown that incorporating Mn into Co₃O₄ substantially extends the catalyst lifetime in acidic electrolyte while maintaining the activity.

Large scale production of thermally stable single-atom catalysts (SACs) remains challenging. Here, the authors report scalable synthesis of Ru SACs by heating physical mixture of commercial RuO₂ and Fe-containing support, which is significantly promoted by strong metal-support interaction.

Strong metal-support interaction (SMSI) is critical in determining the catalytic performance of supported metal catalysts. Here the authors report a phenomenon of size-dependent classical SMSI in Au/TiO₂ catalyst where larger Au particles are more prone to be encapsulated than smaller ones.