News from WPI Research Centers
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 23-Jun-2026 03:16 ET (23-Jun-2026 07:16 GMT/UTC)
16-Jun-2026
Data-driven approach quickly screens for durable, efficient catalysts
Advanced Institute for Materials Research (AIMR), Tohoku UniversityPeer-Reviewed Publication
Tedious trial-and-error, or a systematic screening method? The latter is the clear winner, but how do we go about doing it? Researchers at Tohoku University explain the workflow, and how it screened for an efficient, Ruthenium-based catalyst.
- Journal
- Angewandte Chemie International Edition
15-Jun-2026
DigMethpy: An AI-driven platform for accelerating methane pyrolysis catalyst discovery
Advanced Institute for Materials Research (AIMR), Tohoku UniversityPeer-Reviewed Publication
Discovering new catalysts to power hydrogen production often involves a time-consuming trial-and-error process. Not only that, but materials scientists often have to comb through troves of scientific data and experimental data. Yet these days may be over thanks to a new AI-powered platform that enables researchers to identify new catalysts for methane pyrolysis— a promising technology for producing hydrogen with lower carbon emissions.
11-Jun-2026
Exciting new strategy enhances oxygen reduction in zinc-air batteries
Advanced Institute for Materials Research (AIMR), Tohoku UniversityPeer-Reviewed Publication
An exciting new strategy involving a specially designed iron-based catalyst can speed up the reaction that powers next-gen zinc-air batteries. This means cleaner, more efficient energy for everyone.
- Journal
- Angewandte Chemie International Edition
8-Jun-2026
Finding hidden catalytic knowledge from literature data
Advanced Institute for Materials Research (AIMR), Tohoku UniversityPeer-Reviewed Publication
Exciting new research at Tohoku University’s Advanced Institute for Materials Research (WPI-AIMR) explains how to transform decades of scattered literature data into design rules for catalysts.
- Journal
- EES Catalysis
1-Jun-2026
Beyond the sting: box jellyfish reveal diverse and complex reproduction
Advanced Institute for Marine Ecosystem Change (AIMEC), Tohoku University and JAMSTECPeer-Reviewed Publication
Researchers at Tohoku University look beyond the life-taking venomous stings of box jellyfish, and focus on life-creating processes in a new comprehensive study of their reproductive traits.
- Journal
- Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
25-May-2026
New magnesium alloy design improves stability and ion transport in solid-state batteries
Advanced Institute for Materials Research (AIMR), Tohoku UniversityPeer-Reviewed Publication
A newly designed magnesium-tin alloy is bringing magnesium batteries a step closer to reality. The new alloy design improves both stability and magnesium-ion transport inside solid-state batteries, helping address one of the long-standing challenges in next-generation battery technology.
- Journal
- ACS Energy Letters
- Funder
- JSPS KAKENHI, China Scholarship Council, MASAMUNE-IMR
24-May-2026
Metallurgy: Hidden order unlocks the strength of β-titanium alloys
Advanced Institute for Materials Research (AIMR), Tohoku University
Certain β-titanium alloys achieve ultrahigh compressive strength despite showing none of the precipitate particles that typically explain such strength. Using aberration-corrected electron microscopy and elemental mapping, researchers at AIMR identified nanoscale short-range chemical and topological ordering within the alloy matrix as the hidden strengthening mechanism, opening new avenues for designing high-performance titanium alloys.
- Journal
- Journal of Alloys and Compounds