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Breaking fuel cell barriers: New platinum catalyst brings high-efficiency hydrogen vehicles closer to commercialization

A research team has developed a next-generation platinum-based catalyst that improves both activity and durability in hydrogen fuel cells. The study is published in Advanced Materials. The team was led by Professor Sang Uck Lee of the School of Chemical Engineering at Sungkyunkwan University, with Ph.D. candidate Jun Ho Seok as a co-first author and Dr. Sung Chan Cho, in collaboration with Professor Kwangyeol Lee’s team at Korea University and Dr. Sung Jong Yoo’s team at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST).

Hydrogen fuel cells generate electricity through the electrochemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen and are considered a promising clean energy technology. However, their broader commercialization has been hindered by the sluggish oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) at the cathode and by catalyst degradation during long-term operation.

Conventional platinum-based intermetallic catalysts are known for their structural stability, but their atomic composition and arrangement are difficult to tune precisely. This has limited efforts to optimize their electronic structure and has made it challenging to achieve both high catalytic activity and long-term durability under demanding operating conditions, such as those required for hydrogen-powered vehicles.

Seed banks may complicate gene drives aimed at controlling weeds

Gene drives—a genetic engineering approach that quickly spreads specific genetic changes throughout a population, whether to kill it off or add a new trait—may have potential for controlling weeds. But so far, gene drives have primarily been studied in mosquitoes, and have yet to be deployed in the real world.

In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers modeled how a gene drive would proceed in plants. Their simulations suggest that a gene drive’s success may hinge on seed banks—underground reservoirs of seeds that can germinate years or even decades later. Without proper consideration, they found, these stored seeds can slow down or even doom the gene drive, because they continually reintroduce plants without the gene drive into the population.

Modeling studies like this one can help scientists design successful gene drives in plants and discover and mitigate potential problems before deployment in the wild, the researchers said.

Forget Wi-Fi This Laser Tech Hits 360 Gbps at Half the Power

A new laser-powered wireless system uses light to deliver data at speeds exceeding 360 Gbps. It could enable faster, more efficient indoor networks while reducing interference and energy use.

Modern life runs on fast, reliable wireless connections. Video calls, streaming, virtual reality, and connected devices all depend on networks that already support billions of users. Most of this data travels over radio-based systems like Wi-Fi and cellular networks. These technologies have powered decades of growth, but they are running into limits. Radio spectrum is becoming crowded, signals can interfere with each other in busy indoor spaces, and energy use keeps rising as more devices come online.

Using light instead of radio waves.

A Transparent Waveguide for Sound

Acoustic waves can be guided through a narrow “tunnel” that lacks walls and thus presents no obstruction to sound traveling across its path.

Researchers have devised a “ghost tunnel”—a nearly perfect waveguide for sound that allows other sound waves to pass across its path undisturbed [1]. The tunnel is essentially invisible to external waves. The researchers expect the 2D acoustic structure to find use in situations such as complex sonar devices, where multiple signal channels must cross without interacting.

The hard walls of metal pipes and other ordinary waveguides keep sound trapped inside, but they also present obstructions that scatter external sound waves. This scattering can be a major problem in environments such as integrated acoustic circuits or sonar applications, where sound waves are propagating in multiple directions outside of waveguides. These nonguided waves can potentially suffer from signal-clarity degradation.

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