Tuesday, December 02, 2025

Carbon monoxide, the ‘silent killer,’ becomes a boon for fuel cell catalysts

KIER has developed a metal thin-film control technology at the atomic scale of 0.3-nanometer using carbon monoxide

National Research Council of Science & Technology

image:
Catalyst made with the new method and a core–shell catalyst model
view more
Credit: KOREA INSTITUTE OF ENERGY RESEARCH

Researchers Dr. Gu-Gon Park, Dr. Yongmin Kwon, and Dr. Eunjik Lee from the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Laboratory at the Korea Institute of Energy Research (President Yi Chang-Keun, hereafter “KIER”) have developed a technology that uses carbon monoxide, typically harmful to humans, to precisely control metal thin films at a thickness of 0.3 nanometers. This technology enables faster and simpler production of core–shell catalysts, a key factor in improving the economic viability of fuel cells, and is expected to significantly boost related industries.

Core–shell catalysts refer to catalysts in which the inner core and outer shell are made of different metals. Typically, the core is composed of a low-cost metal, while the shell is made of platinum, which promotes the reactions* in fuel cells. This structure makes it possible to maintain high performance while using only a small amount of expensive platinum, making core–shell catalysts a strategic factor in improving the economic viability of fuel cells.

* Oxygen Reduction Reaction (ORR): In a hydrogen fuel cell, this is the reaction in which oxygen combines with hydrogen. The faster the reaction proceeds, the more quickly current can flow, making ORR a critical indicator for evaluating fuel-cell performance.

To achieve a high-performance core–shell structure, an atomically thick shell must be precisely coated onto the core surface. For this purpose, the “copper-underpotential deposition (Cu-UPD) method has been used for the precise shell thickness contral, in which a thin layer of low-cost copper is first deposited onto the core, followed by the replacement of platinum.

However, this approach demands highly precise voltage control to form an atomic-level copper layer, including extra steps to remove surface oxides. These factors make large-scale manufacturing of core-shell catalysts complex and time-consuming.

To solve this, the team developed CO Adsorption-Induced Deposition (CO AID), a method that uses the redox behavior of carbon monoxide. It enables precise metal coating without additional steps or reducing agents and cuts processing time to one-tenth of conventional methods.

The researchers turned their attention to carbon monoxide’s strong affinity for metal surfaces. CO readily adheres to metals, and when inhaled, it binds strongly to iron ions in the blood, preventing oxygen transport and posing serious health risks. This characteristic is the reason that CO is widely known as a hazardous gas.

Based on this insight, the team enabled carbon monoxide to adsorb onto the core metal surface as a single molecular layer. Platinum was then selectively reduced onto this layer, allowing the researchers to precisely control the shell thickness at the ultra-thin scale of about 0.3 nanometers.

With this approach, kilogram-scale quantities of core–shell catalysts can be produced in as little as 30 minutes to 2 hours, an impressive improvement over conventional copper deposition methods that take more than 24 hours. Moreover, since the process harnesses the inherent redox activity of carbon monoxide, it eliminates the need for electrochemical systems or additional reducing agents.

Using the newly developed method, the team fabricated core–shell catalysts by coating platinum onto metals such as palladium, gold, and iridium. Notably, the palladium-based platinum core–shell catalyst demonstrated about twice the ORR activity and 1.5 times the durability of commercially available platinum-on-carbon (Pt/C)* catalysts.

* Platinum-on-Carbon (Pt/C): A catalyst consisting of platinum particles dispersed on a carbon substrate. Its ease of production has made it the conventional benchmark catalyst in today’s fuel cells.

Dr. Gu-Gon Park, the lead researcher, explained, “This work originated from the idea of converting carbon monoxide’s toxicity into a tool for nanoscale thin-film control. By allowing materials to be precisely engineered at the atomic level and drastically reducing processing time, the technology presents a new synthesis paradigm with excellent prospects for commercialization.”

Dr. Yongmin Kwon, a member of the research team, noted, “Being able to manipulate the surfaces of metal nanoparticles at the atomic-layer scale using something as simple as carbon monoxide means this technology could have far-reaching implications—not only for fuel-cell catalyst production, but also for advancing nanoparticle manufacturing in areas such as semiconductors and thin-film materials.”

The research was conducted in cooperation with the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). It was published in the November issue of ACS Nano (IF 16.1), a prestigious international journal in nanomaterials, and was selected for the issue’s inside front cover. The research was carried out with support from the Ministry of Science and ICT.

Inside front cover of the journal featuring the published research

Credit

KOREA INSTITUTE OF ENERGY RESEARCH

Journal

ACS Nano

DOI

10.1021/acsnano.5c16647

Article Title

CO Adsorption-Induced Depositon: A Facile and Precise Synthesis Route for Core-Shell Catalysts

Articl

SwRI expands High-Viscosity Flow Loop to test equipment moving heavy oils

Upgrade offers more cost-effective and comprehensive testing

Southwest Research Institute

SAN ANTONIO — December 2, 2025 — Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has upgraded its High-Viscosity Flow Loop (HVFL) to meet increased demands in the oil and gas industry. The expanded and upgraded facility now enables SwRI to offer more comprehensive, efficient, and cost-effective heavy oil testing.

Increasing production of heavy oil around the world led SwRI to develop the HVFL in 2015 to gain a better understanding of flow equipment performance in extremely viscous conditions.

“Today, as operators tap into reservoirs with higher gas volume fractions, conventional pumping systems struggle to process the volatile mixture of gas and liquid, demanding advanced gas separation technologies,” said SwRI Senior Research Engineer Josh Neveu. “This presents an opportunity for more research through evaluating pump performance with highly viscous fluids while also handling gas mixed into the fluid stream, simulating multiphase issues.”

In industrial drilling systems, produced oil is rarely single phase and often has natural gas mixed into the production fluid. This makes accounting for multiphase flow a necessity, as the introduction of gas into equipment designed for liquid-only operation can impact equipment performance. Multiphase testing for heavy oil can be costly as most facilities are not optimized to handle highly viscous fluids.

“We modified our facility to start mixing air into water to see how pumps designed for single-phase liquid flow will handle multiphase flows. We will transition to heavy oil as well, and test multiphase flows with different viscosities,” Neveu said.

These upgrades allow the HVFL to complement SwRI’s Multiphase Flow Facility, which has long offered multiphase flow testing at lower viscosities.

In addition to the new multiphase capability, SwRI redesigned and optimized the HVFL, creating more permanent infrastructure that enables cost-effective and efficient testing. This upgrade also improved environmental safety by extending the facility’s oil containment barrier to fully enclose the test setup.

The initial suite of upgrades to the HVFL began in January 2025 and were completed in October. Additional upgrades will commence soon, including the introduction of heavy oil multiphase flow testing.

“We updated the facility to meet our clients’ needs,” Neveu said. “Our goal is to confirm that their equipment performs reliably in tougher, more complex environments.”

For more information, visit https://www.swri.org/markets/energy-environment/oil-gas/flow-component-testing/industrial-pump-testing-validation.

Historical geography helps researchers solve 2,700-year old eclipse mystery

Humanity’s earliest datable record for a total solar eclipse allows scientists to derive accurate measurements of Earth’s ancient rotation speed and provides independent validation of solar cycle reconstruction in the 8th century BCE

Nagoya University

Illustration of an ancient total solar eclipse — image:
Artist's interpretation of an ancient total solar eclipse. This illustration is based on artistic imagination and does not represent the exact appearance of the eclipse recorded in 709 BCE.
view more
Credit: Kano Okada, Nagoya University (Based on an image by Phil Hart: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240402.html)

An international team of researchers has used knowledge of historical geography to reexamine the earliest datable total solar eclipse record known to the scientific community, enabling accurate measurements of Earth's variable rotation speed from 709 BCE. The researchers calculated how the Sun would have appeared from Qufu, the ancient Chinese capital of the Lu Duchy, during the total solar eclipse. Using this information, they analyzed the ancient description of what has been considered the solar corona—the dim outer atmosphere of the Sun visible to the naked eye only during total eclipses—and found that its morphology supports recent solar cycle reconstructions for the 8th century BCE.

Their findings, published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, provide reliable new data about Earth's rotation speed during this period and suggest the Sun was becoming more active after a long quiet period, independently confirming what other scientists have found using radiocarbon analysis.

Finding the true location of an ancient capital

The total solar eclipse occurred on 17 July 709 BCE and was reported from Lu Duchy Court. Its description was found in a chronicle titled the “Spring and Autumn Annals” that was compiled roughly 2-3 centuries after the eclipse. The event was recorded as “the Sun was totally eclipsed.”

“What makes this record special isn’t just its age, but also a later addendum in the ‘Hanshu’ (Book of Han) based on a quote written seven centuries after the eclipse. It describes the eclipsed Sun as ‘completely yellow above and below.’ This addendum has been traditionally associated with a record of a solar corona. If this is truly the case, it represents one of the earliest surviving written descriptions of the solar corona,” lead author Hisashi Hayakawa, Assistant Professor from the Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research and Institute for Advanced Research at Nagoya University explained.

When the researchers tried to verify the solar eclipse record using modern astronomical calculations and reconstructions of Earth’s rotation speed, they found that a total eclipse would not have been visible from the Lu Court at Qufu. They realized earlier studies had missed the exact location of the ancient city.

To correct the coordinates of ancient Qufu the researchers used knowledge of historical geography, consulting archaeological excavation reports of the ancient city. They found that previous studies used coordinates that were some eight kilometers away from the true location.

"This correction allowed us to accurately measure the Earth's rotation during the total eclipse, calculate the orientation of the Sun’s rotation axis, and simulate the corona’s appearance," explained Hayakawa, who holds PhDs in both solar physics and oriental history.

China developed exceptional traditions for astronomical records because ancient dynasties hired experts to monitor celestial events for omenological reasons—the practice of interpreting celestial events as omens or signs. They believed strange sky phenomena indicated political wrongdoing by emperors, which motivated careful tracking of eclipses, auroras, and other astronomical events. Consequently, this systematic record-keeping across multiple dynasties has given China some of the world’s best ancient eclipse records.

While the 709 BCE event represents the earliest explicit written mention of a total solar eclipse and possibly the earliest surviving description that refers to a solar corona, Hayakawa and his colleagues raise caveats on the reliability of the corona description because it appears only in the Hanshu as a quote written some seven centuries after the event. Although questions remain about the reliability of the later corona description, the eclipse timing itself is based on scientific consensus and provides reliable new information on Earth’s rotation and potential independent support for recent solar cycle studies.

When Earth spun faster and the Sun was quieter

Our planet spins slightly slower now than it did 2,700 years ago because of several factors including friction from ocean tides caused by the Moon’s gravity. Using the corrected coordinates, the team derived new accurate measurements of Earth’s rotation speed in the 8th to 6th centuries BCE.

The study revealed that delta T (ΔT), a parameter for the Earth’s rotation speed variability, during this eclipse was between 20,264 and 21,204 seconds. “This new dataset fixes coordinate errors in previous Earth rotation studies. Additionally, it improves the accuracy of dating and reconstructing historical astronomical events,” Mitsuru Sôma, coauthor from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan said.

The research also supports recent solar cycle studies based on radiocarbon data from tree rings. “This unique historical addendum for the possible solar coronal structure is critical for providing a spot reference on solar activity reconstructions from tree rings and ice cores, as well as providing independent validation of solar activity models,” Mathew Owens, coauthor and professor of Space Physics at the University of Reading explained.

During photosynthesis, trees absorb carbon, including radiocarbon, which is stored in their annual growth rings. Because radiocarbon concentrations reflect past cosmic ray levels and cosmic rays decrease when solar activity increases, scientists measure these concentrations to track solar activity over time and reconstruct past solar cycles.

Approximately every 11 years the Sun cycles between more-active and less-active phases. Sometimes this pattern is interrupted by longer quiet periods called “grand minima” when the Sun produces only stray sunspots. The eclipse occurred just after the end of a period of decreased solar activity known as the “Neo Assyrian Grand Minimum” or “Homer Grand Minimum,” lasting from 808 to 717 BCE.

Morphologically, the ancient observers' descriptions of the probable coronal structure suggest the Sun had come back to regular solar cycles with substantial magnetic activity by 709 BCE and reached the peak of its 11-year cycle. This result supports what other scientists have reconstructed using tree ring data.

This interdisciplinary study demonstrates how ancient human observations continue to provide invaluable scientific data. “Some of our ancestors were very skilled observers,” Dr. Meng Jin, coauthor from the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory, noted. “When we combine their careful records with modern computational methods and historical evidence, we can potentially find new information about our planet and our star from thousands of years ago.”

Ancient Chinese text from the Spring and Autumn Annals that contains humanity’s earliest datable written record of a total solar eclipse from 709 BCE. The text states “In autumn, in the seventh month, on the renchen day, the first day of the month, the Sun was totally eclipsed.” The term “renchen” refers to a specific day in the traditional Chinese 60-day calendar cycle.

Later Chinese historical text from the “Hanshu” (Book of Han), an official dynastic history, providing additional details about the 709 BCE eclipse. This source includes the description that the eclipsed Sun appeared “completely yellow above and below,” which scientists regard as a description of the solar corona.