Anion-exchange membrane water electrolyzers (AEMWEs) for green hydrogen production have received intensive attention due to their feasibility of using earth-abundant NiFe-based catalysts. By introducing a third metal into NiFe-based catalysts to construct asymmetrical M-NiFe units, the d-orbital and electronic structures can be adjusted, which is an important strategy to achieve sufficient oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance in AEMWEs. Herein, the ternary NiFeM (M: La, Mo) catalysts featured with distinct M-NiFe units and varying d-orbitals are reported in this work. Experimental and theoretical calculation results reveal that the doping of La leads to optimized hybridization between d orbital in NiFeM and 2p in oxygen, resulting in enhanced adsorption strength of oxygen intermediates, and reduced rate-determining step energy barrier, which is responsible for the enhanced OER performance. More critically, the obtained NiFeLa catalyst only requires 1.58 V to reach 1 A cm⁻² in an anion exchange membrane electrolyzer and demonstrates excellent long-term stability of up to 600 h.

International researchers from a range of disciplines challenge long-held assumptions about one of the most transformative processes in human history

Charge transfer, or the movement of electrons, can occur either within a molecule or between two molecules. Combining the two types of charge transfer is challenging. Now, scientists from Shibaura Institute of Technology, Japan, have developed a hybrid charge transfer crystal using a novel pyrazinacene molecule. This crystal is capable of reacting with naphthalene to produce a reversible color shift, from greenish-blue to red-violet. Such color-changing crystals can have various potential applications in materials science.

A research team from the Visual Perception and Cognition Laboratory and the Cognitive Neurotechnology Unit, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan, investigated whether human pedestrians exhibit a consistent tendency to move either left or right to avoid autonomous mobile robots during head-on encounters. The results showed no consistent directional preference among the participants; instead, individual differences were observed in the chosen direction of avoidance. However, the direction in which the pedestrians moved, either left or right, could be reliably predicted by analyzing the orientation of their waist during walking. To respond accordingly, the robots were equipped with a function that enabled them to detect human waist orientation and adjust their movement in real time. This study also examined whether the timing of the robots' avoidance behavior influenced pedestrians’ comfort during passing. Overall, the findings indicated that early avoidance behavior by the robots, based on the predicted direction of human movement, led to an improvement in the pedestrians’ perceived comfort during passing. This study was published online in the journal PLoS One on May 14, 2025.