Tailoring manganese oxide with atomic precision to increase surface site availability for oxygen reduction catalysis.

Controlling the structure of catalysts at the atomic level provides an opportunity to establish detailed understanding of the catalytic form-to-function and realize new, non-equilibrium catalytic structures. Here, advanced thin-film deposition is used to control the atomic structure of LaSrMnO, a well-known catalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction. The surface and sub-surface is customized, whereas the overall composition and d-electron configuration of the oxide is kept constant.

Synthesis and Characterization of an Alumina Forming Nanolaminated Boride: MoAlB.

The 'MAlB' phases are nanolaminated, ternary transition metal borides that consist of a transition metal boride sublattice interleaved by monolayers or bilayers of pure aluminum. However, their synthesis and properties remain largely unexplored. Herein, we synthesized dense, predominantly single-phase samples of one such compound, MoAlB, using a reactive hot pressing method.