Highlighted Publication

A catalyst materials’ stability is fundamental to its performance and successful commercial adoption. Especially core-shell structures have demonstrated improved stability, encapsulating the catalytically active sites within the core in a porous protective layer. The strong metal support interaction (SMSI) phenomena between a catalyst particle and its support material can play a critical role in the formation of stabilizing core-shell structures during cycling.

Researchers at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and University of Oxford have developed a generalizable, onestep approach for encapsulating transition metal catalyst particles via thermally induced SMSI. Using Protochips’ in-situ gas-TEM system, Atmosphere AX, they were able to visualize and characterize the encapsulation mechanism in real-time under operando conditions. They were able to identify promising, morphologically stable candidates that exhibited significant improvements in long-term performance.