POSTMODERN ALCHEMY

Steel making could get a makeover

University of Minnesota

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Ph.D. student, Jae Hyun Nam, worked in the University of Minnesota Characterization Facility to complete these nanometer scale observations.

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Credit: Kalie Pluchel, University of Minnesota

Researchers investigate clean and efficient new method for iron production

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (09/29/2025) — A research team at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities has investigated a new method to produce iron, the main component of steel. For the first time, the researchers were able to observe chemical reactions and iron formation in real-time at the nanometer scale. 

This breakthrough has the potential to transform the global iron and steel production industry by improving energy efficiency and lowering costs. The study was recently published in Nature Communications, a peer-reviewed, high impact scientific journal.

According to the paper, the iron and steel industry is the largest industrial emitter of carbon dioxide, responsible for approximately 7 percent of the total global carbon dioxide emissions. Traditional methods for producing iron are pollution-heavy, relying on coke–a type of coal–to remove oxygen from iron ore—a process that has remained largely unchanged for centuries.

This method eliminates the CO2 emissions that have traditionally come from iron-making that can be performed at room temperature. This makes it potentially more efficient and desirable to industry and opens new pathways to innovation in the U.S. based manufacturing industry.

The new process uses hydrogen gas plasma, an ionized gas which dissociates the hydrogen gas producing an abundance of highly reactive hydrogen atoms. When the iron is exposed to this plasma, the highly reactive hydrogen atoms strip the oxygen from the ore producing pure iron and water vapor.

“We developed a new technique that allows us to monitor plasma-material interactions at the nanometer scale, which has never been done before,” said Jae Hyun Nam, first author on the paper and a Ph.D. student in the University of Minnesota Department of Mechanical Engineering.

The team partnered with Hummingbird Scientific, a company that builds products for electron, X-ray and ion microscopy, to create a specialized holder that fits inside of an transmission electron microscope. 

"Overcoming the technical challenges of this research was one of the most difficult experiments we've done," said Peter Bruggeman, a senior author on the paper and University of Minnesota Distinguished McKnight University Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. “Generating plasmas on a scale around the size of a human hair, which is required to obtain the nanometer resolution, creates significant engineering challenges which we collaboratively tackled with Hummingbird Scientific.”

Previous optical methods could only be viewed at a few hundred nanometers—about a thousand times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. This new method will allow researchers to see things at a nanometer resolution, which is 100 times better than previous research. 

“Creating plasma could be energetically a lot more efficient than heating the material," said Andre Mkhoyan, a senior author on the paper and professor and Ray D. and Mary T. Johnson Chair in the University of Minnesota Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. “This innovation could lead to materials being modified with lower energy consumption, ultimately making processes more economically efficient.”

Read the full paper entitled, “Revealing the mechanisms of non-thermal plasma-enabled iron oxide reduction through nanoscale operando TEM” on the Nature Communications website.

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Journal

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-025-62639-4 

Article Title

Revealing the mechanisms of non-thermal plasma-enabled iron oxide reduction through nanoscale operando TEM

POSTMODERN ALCHEMY; SPAGYRICS

A minty-fresh solution: Using a menthol-like compound to activate plant immune mechanisms

A menthol-like compound was found to boost the expression of genes that protect crop species from pest-related damage

TOKYO UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE

Research News

 

IMAGE: REDUCTION OF INSECT-CAUSED LEAF DAMAGE BY MENT-VAL EXPOSURE view more 

CREDIT: TOKYO UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE

Although plants may look fairly inactive to casual observers, research into plant biology has shown that plants can send each other signals concerning threats in their local environments. These signals take the form of airborne chemicals, called volatile organic compounds (VOCs), released from one plant and detected by another, and plant biologists have found that a diverse class of chemicals called terpenoids play a major role as airborne danger signals.

Past studies have shown that soybean and lima bean plants both release terpenoid signals that activate defense-related genes in neighboring plants of the same species, and this chemically induced gene activation can help the plants protect themselves from threats like herbivorous pests.

In recent years, scientists have realized that the capacity of these chemical signals to boost plant defense mechanisms could make them useful pest control tools for agriculture and horticulture. One such scientist is Prof. Gen-ichiro Arimura of the Tokyo University of Science, Japan. Prof. Arimura notes that "the development of agricultural technology to date has been largely reliant on the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, which has resulted in environmental pollution and the destruction of ecosystems." As a greener alternative to pesticides, terpenoid signaling molecules may help farmers continue their production of vital foodstuffs while lessening the associated environmental costs.

In pursuit of this goal, Prof. Arimura and his colleagues chose to investigate the terpenoid compound menthol, which is derived from mint leaves and can activate plant immune systems. The aim of this project, which the researchers describe in an article recently published in the journal Plant Molecular Biology, was to develop compounds that are structurally similar to menthol but improve upon menthol's ability to activate plant immune systems. The researchers therefore experimented with chemically modifying menthol by attaching amino acids, which are a structurally diverse set of compounds that living cells use to construct proteins. In total, the researchers synthesized six different menthol derivatives with attached amino acids.

The researchers then tested the resulting menthol derivatives to see whether the modified compounds could outperform unmodified menthol at activating plant defense mechanisms. To do this, they treated soybean leaves with either menthol or one of the six menthol derivatives to see which of the derivatives, if any, could outclass menthol itself at boosting the expression levels of two defense-related soybean genes after 24 hours of exposure. The found that only one of the modified compounds bested menthol, and this compound is called valine menthyl ester, or "ment-Val" for short.

The researchers found that spraying soybean leaves once with a ment-Val solution boosted expression of the defense-related genes for three days, and a second spraying on the fourth day worked to boost the expression of those genes again. These findings suggest that ment-Val could provide sustainable pest control for farmers growing soybeans. Further experiments showed that ment-Val also increased the expression of defense-related genes in other crops, including peas, tobacco, lettuce, and corn. Ment-Val also proved to be quite stable under various conditions, which suggests that farmers would probably not lose the compound to degradation during storage.

Overall, these results suggest that ment-Val could be extremely useful as an alternative to the chemical pesticides that so many farmers rely on. Prof. Arimura notes that spraying ment-Val may be an effective way "to reduce pest damage to soybeans and other crops." He has applied for a patent on ment-Val's use as a crop protection agent, and he predicts that the commercialization of ment-Val "will generate billions of yen in economic benefits through its usage by companies operating in the fields of horticulture and agriculture." He also notes that ment-Val's anti-inflammatory properties could make it useful for human medicine.

The future is certainly going to be exciting for research into menthol derivatives like ment-Val!

CAPTION

A recent study found that a compound derived from menthol, which in turn comes from mint leaves, may help farmers reduce pest-related crop losses without having to rely on chemical pesticides

CREDIT

Travis Colbert on Unsplash

About The Tokyo University of Science

Tokyo University of Science (TUS) is a well-known and respected university, and the largest science-specialized private research university in Japan, with four campuses in central Tokyo and its suburbs and in Hokkaido. Established in 1881, the university has continually contributed to Japan's development in science through inculcating the love for science in researchers, technicians, and educators.

With a mission of "Creating science and technology for the harmonious development of nature, human beings, and society", TUS has undertaken a wide range of research from basic to applied science. TUS has embraced a multidisciplinary approach to research and undertaken intensive study in some of today's most vital fields. TUS is a meritocracy where the best in science is recognized and nurtured. It is the only private university in Japan that has produced a Nobel Prize winner and the only private university in Asia to produce Nobel Prize winners within the natural sciences field.

Website: https://www.tus.ac.jp/en/mediarelations/

About Professor Gen-ichiro Arimura from Tokyo University of Science

Dr Gen-ichiro Arimura is a Professor in the Department of Biological Science and Technology within the Faculty of Advanced Engineering at TUS, Japan. After completing his postgraduate education at the Hiroshima University Graduate School, he worked in the field of plant biology for several years before moving to TUS in 2013. A senior and well-respected researcher, he has more than 110 publications to his credit. His key research interests include plant biotechnology, ecology, and biochemistry.

Funding information

This work was funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; the Japan Science and Technology Agency; the Fuji Foundation for Protein Research; and the Nagase Science and Technology Foundation.

POSTMODERN ALCHEMY

Gold, zinc help manipulate water to create clean fuels with no dirty byproducts

Staff Writer | June 2, 2024 |

Native gold. (Reference image by James St. John, Flickr.)

Scientists looking to convert carbon dioxide into clean fuels and useful chemicals often make hydrogen gas and carbonates as unwanted byproducts.


At its core, the CO2 molecule is just an arrangement of one carbon and two oxygen atoms that can be reorganized through a technique called electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction (CO2R) into clean fuels and useful chemicals. But the process is often done at a loss, with competing mechanisms pulling the atoms in undesirable directions that create unwanted byproducts.

To address this issue, researchers from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering’s Amanchukwu Lab outlined a way to manipulate water molecules to make CO2R more efficient and create a clean energy loop.

In a paper published in Nature Catalysis, the researchers explain that they were able to perform CO2R with nearly 100% efficiency under mildly acidic conditions, using either gold or zinc as catalysts.

“Imagine we can have green electricity from solar and wind, and then use this electricity to convert any carbon dioxide back into fuels,” Reggie Gomes, first author of the paper, said in a media statement.
HER

Electrochemically disassembling a molecule is like a break shot in a game of pool. The previous arrangement disappears and the balls scatter across the table, coming to rest in new combinations—not always the ones the player intended.

Similarly, scientists performing CO2R use electricity and water to break up and rearrange the greenhouse gas. This sends atoms of carbon and oxygen from the carbon dioxide caroming across the table with hydrogen atoms from the water.

If it works as intended, the atoms form other, more desirable molecules that can be used as fuels or chemicals.

But as the atoms scatter, stable pairings of two hydrogen atoms often form a process called hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). This makes CO2R less efficient, as energy and atoms that become hydrogen gas can’t be part of the molecules the scientists were trying to create.

Even in small quantities of water, CO2R is always competing with HER.

The Amanchukwu Lab applied insights from aqueous batteries to the problem, hypothesizing that controlling the water with organic solvents could provide a solution.
The bling-bling

Both CO2R and HER rely on water as a proton donor.

Using organic solvents and acid additives, the team was able to tune the water’s behaviour, finding the sweet spot where it donated the right amount of protons to create the intended molecules, not the hydrogen gas and other unwanted materials like carbonates.

However, many of the most effective ways to perform CO2R rely on precious metals.

“Platinum, silver, gold—for research purposes, they’re great catalysts,” Gomes said. “They’re very stable materials. But when you’re thinking about industrial applications, they become cost-prohibitive.”

By engineering the electrolyte, the new method can get similar results using cheaper, more abundant materials.

“Right now, the best way to do this electrochemically at room temperature is to use precious metals. Gold and silver can suppress the hydrogen evolution reaction a little bit,” head researcher Chibueze Amanchukwu said. “Because of our discovery, we can now use an earth-abundant metal, zinc, because we now have a separate way to control water.”

POSTMODERN ALCHEMY

Utilizing palladium for addressing contact issues of buried oxide thin film transistors

TOKYO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

 

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A NOVEL METHOD THAT EMPLOYS PALLADIUM TO INJECT HYDROGEN INTO THE DEEPLY BURIED OXIDE-METAL ELECTRODE CONTACTS OF AMORPHOUS OXIDE SEMICONDUCTORS (AOSS) STORAGE DEVICES, WHICH REDUCES CONTACT RESISTANCE, HAS BEEN DEVELOPED BY SCIENTISTS AT TOKYO TECH. THIS INNOVATIVE METHOD PRESENTS A VALUABLE SOLUTION FOR ADDRESSING THE CONTACT ISSUES OF AOSS, PAVING THE WAY FOR THEIR APPLICATION IN NEXT-GENERATION STORAGE DEVICES AND DISPLAYS.

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CREDIT: ASSISTANT PROFESSOR MASATAKE TSUJI AND HONORARY PROFESSOR HIDEO HOSONO

A novel method that employs palladium to inject hydrogen into the deeply buried oxide-metal electrode contacts of amorphous oxide semiconductors (AOSs) storage devices, which reduces contact resistance, has been developed by scientists at Tokyo Tech. This innovative method presents a valuable solution for addressing the contact issues of AOSs, paving the way for their application in next-generation storage devices and displays.

Thin film transistors (TFTs) based on amorphous oxide semiconductors (AOSs) have garnered considerable attention for applications in next-generation storage devices such as capacitor-less dynamic-random access memory (DRAM) and high-density DRAM technologies. Such storage devices employ complex architectures with TFTs stacked vertically to achieve high storage densities. Despite their potential, AOS TFTs suffer from contact issues between AOSs and electrodes resulting in excessively high contact resistance, thereby degrading charge carrier mobility, and increasing power consumption. Moreover, vertically stacked architectures further exacerbate these issues.

Many methods have been proposed to address these issues, including the deposition of a highly conductive oxide interlayer between the contacts, forming oxygen vacancies on the AOS contact surface and surface treatment with plasma. Hydrogen plays a key role in these methods, as it, when dissociated into atomic hydrogen and injected into the AOS-electrode contact area, generates charge carriers, thereby reducing contact resistance. However, these methods are energy-intensive or require multiple steps and while they effectively address the high-contact resistance of the exposed upper surface of the semiconductors, they are impractical for buried contacts within the complex nanoscale architectures of storage devices.

To address this issue, a team of researchers (Assistant Professor Masatake Tsuji, doctoral student Yuhao Shi, and Honorary Professor Hideo Hosono) from the MDX Research Center for Element Strategy at the International Research Frontiers Initiative at Tokyo Institute of Technology has now developed a novel hydrogen injection method. Their findings were published online in the journal ACS Nano on 22 March 2024.

In this innovative method, an electrode made up of a suitable metal, which can catalyze the dissociation of hydrogen at low temperatures, is used to transport the atomic hydrogen to the AOS-electrode interface, resulting in a highly conductive oxide layer. Choosing suitable electrode material is therefore key for implementing this strategy. Dr. Tsuji explains, “This method requires a metal that has a high hydrogen diffusion rate and hydrogen solubility to shorten post-treatment times and reduce processing temperatures. In this study, we utilized palladium (Pd) as it fulfils the dual role of catalyzing hydrogen dissociation and transport, making it the most suitable material for hydrogen injection in AOS TFTs at low temperatures, even at deep internal contacts.”

To demonstrate the effectiveness of this method, the team fabricated amorphous indium gallium oxide (a-IGZO) TFTs with Pd thin film electrodes as hydrogen transport pathways. The TFTs were heat-treated in a 5% hydrogen atmosphere at a temperature of 150 0C for 10 minutes. This resulted in the transport of atomic hydrogen by Pd to the a-IGZO-Pd interface, triggering a reaction between oxygen and hydrogen, forming a highly conductive interfacial layer.

 

Testing revealed that due to the conductive layer, the contact resistance of the TFTs was reduced by two orders of magnitude. Moreover, the charge carrier mobility increased from 3.2 cm2V–1s–1 to nearly 20 cm2V–1s–1, representing a substantial improvement. “Our method enables hydrogen to rapidly reach the oxide-Pd interface even in the device interior, up to a depth of 100 μm. This makes it highly suitable for addressing the contact issues of AOS-based storage devices” remarks Dr. Tsuji. Additionally, this method preserved the stability of the TFTs, suggesting no side effects due to hydrogen diffusion in the electrodes.

Emphasizing the potential of the study, Dr. Tsuji concludes: “This approach is specifically tailored for complex device architectures, representing a valuable solution for the application of AOS in next-generation memory devices and displays.”  IGZO-TFT is now a de facto standard to drive the pixels of flat panel displays. The present technology will put forward its application to memory.

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JOURNAL

ACS Nano

DOI

10.1021/acsnano.4c02101 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Approach to Low Contact Resistance Formation on Buried Interface in Oxide Thin-Film Transistors: Utilization of Palladium-Mediated Hydrogen Pathway

 

Good as gold - improving infectious disease testing with gold nanoparticles

ADVANCED INSTITUTE FOR MATERIALS RESEARCH (AIMR), TOHOKU UNIVERSITY

 

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GNDP PARTICLES

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CREDIT: HIROSHI YABU

By harnessing the power of composite polymer particles adorned with gold nanoparticles, a group of researchers have delivered a more accurate means of testing for infectious diseases.

Details of their research was published in the journal Langmuir.

The COVID-19 pandemic reinforced the need for fast and reliable infectious disease testing in large numbers. Most testing done today involves antigen-antibody reactions. Fluorescence, absorptions, or color particle probes are attached to antibodies. When the antibodies stick to the virus, these probes visualize the virus's presence. In particular, the use of color nanoparticles is renowned for its excellent visuality, along with its simplicity to implement, with little scientific equipment needed to perform lateral flow tests.

Gold color nanoparticles (AU-NP), with their high chemical stability and unique plasmon absorption, are widely employed as probes in immunoassay tests. They exhibit extreme versatility, with their colors fluctuating according to their size and shape. Additionally, their surface can be modified by using thiol compounds.

Conventional tests that use AU-NP often have to amplify AU-NP's optical density, so that scientists can easily measure the strength of the signal produced by the interaction between antibodies and the target substance.

Adding more gold nanoparticles is one means to do this. But because nanoparticles are tiny, it requires a large quantity of them to achieve a strong enough signal for accurate detection.

To overcome this, the researchers proposed a new method called self-organized precipitation (SORP). SORP works by dissolving polymers into organic solvents before adding a liquid that doesn't dissolve the polymers well, like water. After the original organic solvent is removed by evaporation, polymers assemble together, forming tiny particles.

"Using gold nanoparticle decorated polymers (GDNP) assembled by SORP, we set out to see how effective they would be in detecting the influenza virus, and whether they offered improved sensitivity in detecting antigen-antibody reactions," states Hiroshi Yabu, co-author of the paper and professor at Tohoku University's Advanced Institute for Materials Research (AIMR). "And it did. Our method resulted in a higher optical density than original AU-NPs and GNDPs decorated with smaller AU-NPs."

Yabu and his colleagues' findings reinforce that GNDP particles have broad utility, extending beyond laboratory settings to real-world diagnostic scenarios.

About the World Premier International Research Center Initiative (WPI)

The WPI program was launched in 2007 by Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) to foster globally visible research centers boasting the highest standards and outstanding research environments. Numbering more than a dozen and operating at institutions throughout the country, these centers are given a high degree of autonomy, allowing them to engage in innovative modes of management and research. The program is administered by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).

See the latest research news from the centers at the WPI News Portal: https://www.eurekalert.org/newsportal/WPI
Main WPI program site:  www.jsps.go.jp/english/e-toplevel

Advanced Institute for Materials Research (AIMR), Tohoku University

Establish a World-Leading Research Center for Materials Science:

AIMR aims to contribute to society through its actions as a world-leading research center for materials science and push the boundaries of research frontiers. To this end, the institute gathers excellent researchers in the fields of physics, chemistry, materials science, engineering, and mathematics and provides a world-class research environment.

AIMR site: https://www.wpi-aimr.tohoku.ac.jp/en/
 

An immunoassay system that uses GNDP particles with antibodies

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A scan electron micrograph of GNDP particles. 

CREDIT

Hiroshi Yabu

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JOURNAL

Langmuir

DOI

10.1021/acs.langmuir.3c03890 

ARTICLE TITLE

Gold Nanoparticle-Decorated Polymer (GNDP) Particles for High-Optical-Density Immunoassay Probes

POSTMODERN ALCHEMY

Molybdenum, sulphur key to converting CO2 into methanol

Staff Writer | July 4, 2022 | 

Molybdenum disulphide under the scanning electron microscope. (Image courtesy of the Vienna University of Technology).

Researchers at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) have developed a solution that allows for the production of liquid methanol from carbon dioxide using a catalyst material made of sulphur and molybdenum.


The new technology, already patented and in the process of being brought to industrial scale, is meant to sequester CO2 from the exhaust gas stream of large industrial plants.

“To convert carbon dioxide, catalysts based on copper have often been used so far,” Karin Föttinger, one of the scientists involved in the project, said in a media statement.

“However, they have the disadvantage that they are not robust. If there are certain other substances in the exhaust gas stream besides carbon dioxide, for example, sulphur, the catalyst quickly loses its activity. It is said that the catalyst is poisoned.”

Given this situation, Föttinger and her team set out to find a better material.

“If you want to use such methods not only in the laboratory but also on a large scale in industry, then you need a catalyst that is perhaps a little less active, but robust, durable and reliable,” Föttinger said. “You want to be able to process quite ordinary industrial waste gases without pre-treatment.”

The group was able to show that catalysts based on sulphur and molybdenum fulfill these requirements. Special additional elements, such as manganese, ensure that carbon dioxide, which is actually very unreactive, is activated and converted.

By choosing such additional elements, the properties of the catalysts can be precisely adapted to the desired area of application. In this way, methanol can now be produced from waste gas containing CO2.

“Methanol is an attractive product. It is liquid at room temperature, so it can be stored without any problems. It is needed in the industry; up to now it has normally been produced from fossil raw materials,” Föttinger said. “But it is also possible to use our catalysts to produce other molecules, such as higher alcohols. We are currently still working on figuring out exactly how best to choose parameters like pressure and temperature to produce different products.”

In the researcher’s view, the novel catalyst is likely to make an important contribution to making industry climate-neutral and closing material cycles

POSTMODERN ALCHEMY

Hydrogen peroxide, universal oxidizing agent, high-efficiency production by simple process

Computer simulation-based catalyst development for hydrogen peroxide production with selectivity of 95%. Development of the platinum-gold alloy catalyst facilitating hydrogen peroxide direct synthesis from hydrogen and oxygen at room temperature and atmo

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Research News

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IMAGE: GOLD-PLATINUM NANOPARTICLE COMPOSITE SCHEMATIC view more 

CREDIT: KOREA INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY(KIST)

Hydrogen peroxide is used as a disinfectant, after dilution in water, to treat wounds. It is widely used across the industry as an eco-friendly oxidizing agent for impurity removal from semiconductors, waste treatment, etc. Currently, it is mainly produced by the sequential hydrogenation and oxidation of anthraquinone (AQ). However, this process is not only energy intensive and requires large-scale facilities, but AQ is also toxic.

As an alternative to the AQ process, hydrogen peroxide direct synthesis from hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O2) using a palladium (Pd) catalyst was proposed. However, the commercialization of the technology has been challenging becausethe amount of water (H2O) formed is more than hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) during the process.*

*In the case of the Pd catalyst, 40% of hydrogen peroxide and 60% of water were maximally produced.

The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) announced that a joint research team of Dr. Sang Soo Han and Dr. Donghun Kim (Computational Science Research Center), Dr. Seung Yong Lee (Materials Architecture Research Center), and Professor Kwan-Young Lee at Korea University (Korea University, President Jin Taek Chung) developed a platinum-gold alloy catalyst for hydrogen peroxide production based on a computer simulation. Hydrogen peroxide selectivity can be increased to 95% by using this catalyst, compared with only 30-40% for a palladium catalyst, which indicates that mostly hydrogen peroxide on the developed Pt-Au catalyst can be produced with a small amount of water.

The joint research team between KIST and Korea University developed a new type of Pt-Au alloyed nanoparticle catalyst. Although it is difficult to homogeniously mix Pt and Au to develop an alloyed catalyst due to the intrinsic immiscibility of the metals, the researchers could successfully synthesize nanoparticles in the form of alloys by forcibly reducing **precursors of Pt and Au. Also, using this method, the content of each metal particle could be controlled by adjusting the amount of precursors of Pt and Au.

**Precursor: a substance from which the final specific substances is obtained by metabolism or chemical reactions

Hydrogen peroxide can be produced anywhere without large equipment by simply injecting both hydrogen gas and oxygen gas into an aqueous solution using the catalyst developed by the researchers. Unlike the Pd catalyst, the catalyst developed by the joint researchers can produce hydrogen peroxide up to 95% even at ambient temperature (10 ?C) and atmospheric pressure (1 atm). In addition, a catalytic reaction can be maintained for longer than 8 h, resulting from the structural stability of the catalyst.

The researchers clearly established the crystal structure of Pt-Au alloy nanoparticles by performing additional computer simulations, which is difficult to solve using general material analysis techniques. Furthermore, the catalytic reaction mechanism via compuater simulations was proposed at the atomic level in which the reason why the catalytic performance for hydrogen peroxide production is increased iswith increasing Au content was also clarified.

Sang Soo Han, Head of the Center at KIST, said, "it is important that the developed catalysts provide an eco-friendly hydrogen peroxide production option that can be applied without any limitation of manufacturing sites. Therefore, commercialization for the hydrogen peroxide direct synthesis would be greatly accelerated by overcoming the limitation of Pd catalysts with the low selectivity" and "the time and cost for the development of novel catalysts, mainly explored through trial and error, could be considerably reduced through computer simulations".

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This study was conducted by the Creative Materials Discovery Program of the National Research Foundation of Korea with the support of the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT).The research results were published in the latest issue of an international journal 'Acta Materialia' in the field of materials science.