New materials improve oxygen catalysis
MIT researchers have found a new family of materials that provides the best-ever performance in a reaction called oxygen evolution, a key requirement for energy storage and delivery systems such as advanced fuel cells and lithium-air batteries.The materials, called double perovskites, are a variant of a mineral that exists in abundance in the Earth’s crust. Their remarkable ability to promote oxygen evolution in a water-splitting reaction — which breaks water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen — is detailed in a paper appearing in the journal Nature Communications. The work was conducted by Yang Shao-Horn, the Gail E. Kendall Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering; postdoc Alexis Grimaud; and six others.The performance of this family of materials, Shao-Horn says, is a step forward from the previous record-holder for a catalyst that promotes electrochemical water-splitting — a material that Shao-Horn and her team reported in a paper in Science...