A self-driving laboratory advances the Pareto front for material properties.

Useful materials must satisfy multiple objectives, where the optimization of one objective is often at the expense of another. The Pareto front reports the optimal trade-offs between these conflicting objectives. Here we use a self-driving laboratory, Ada, to define the Pareto front of conductivities and processing temperatures for palladium films formed by combustion synthesis.

Strain Influences the Hydrogen Evolution Activity and Absorption Capacity of Palladium.

Strain engineering can increase the activity and selectivity of an electrocatalyst. Tensile strain is known to improve the electrocatalytic activity of palladium electrodes for reduction of carbon dioxide or dioxygen, but determining how strain affects the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is complicated by the fact that palladium absorbs hydrogen concurrently with HER. We report here a custom electrochemical cell, which applies tensile strain to a flexible working electrode, that enabled us to resolve how tensile strain affects hydrogen absorption and HER activity for a thin film palladium electrocatalyst.

Facets and vertices regulate hydrogen uptake and release in palladium nanocrystals.

Crystal facets, vertices and edges govern the energy landscape of metal surfaces and thus the chemical interactions on the surface. The facile absorption and desorption of hydrogen at a palladium surface provides a useful platform for defining how metal-solute interactions impact properties relevant to energy storage, catalysis and sensing. Recent advances in in operando and in situ techniques have enabled the phase transitions of single palladium nanocrystals to be temporally and spatially tracked during hydrogen absorption.

Methods for regeneration and transformation in Eschscholzia californica: A model plant to investigate alkaloid biosynthesis.

Eschscholzia californica Cham. (California poppy) is a plant species that accumulates pharmacologically active alkaloids biosynthetically related to the morphinan alkaloids of Papaver somniferum. This, in combination with the relative ease with which it is propagated in vitro, makes it a key model for benzylisoquinoline biosynthesis.

Evidence for the monophyletic evolution of benzylisoquinoline alkaloid biosynthesis in angiosperms.

Benzylisoquinoline alkaloids (BIAs) consist of more than 2500 diverse structures largely restricted to the order Ranunculales and the eumagnoliids. However, BIAs also occur in the Rutaceae, Lauraceae, Cornaceae and Nelumbonaceae, and sporadically throughout the order Piperales. Several of these alkaloids function in the defense of plants against herbivores and pathogens--thus the capacity for BIA biosynthesis is expected to play an important role in the reproductive fitness of certain plants.

Evidence for the monophyletic evolution of benzylisoquinoline alkaloid biosynthesis in angiosperms.

Benzylisoquinoline alkaloids (BIAs) consist of more than 2500 diverse structures largely restricted to the order Ranunculales and the eumagnoliids. However, BIAs also occur in the Rutaceae, Lauraceae, Cornaceae and Nelumbonaceae, and sporadically throughout the order Piperales. Several of these alkaloids function in the defense of plants against herbivores and pathogens - thus, the capacity for BIA biosynthesis is expected to play an important role in the reproductive fitness of certain plants.