This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Catalysts spur chemical reactions used across industries, from producing fuels and medicines to manufacturing chemicals and treating pollutants. Improving their performance requires understanding where and how reactions happen on their surfaces.
However, conventional measurements average the activity of many catalyst particles, concealing local differences that could hold clues to designing more effective materials. Researchers at the College of Design and Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS CDE) have developed an imaging method called DELINE that makes these differences visible by tracking individual reaction events across a catalyst's surface. Demonstrated on gold and copper catalysts in electricity-driven reactions, the approach could help researchers identify useful surface features and tailor materials to their operating conditions.
Studying water dissociation, a key step in producing hydrogen from water, the team uncovered a trade-off: surface regions where the reaction accelerates more strongly with applied voltage tend to have a slower underlying reaction rate. The finding shows that the features most useful for a catalyst can depend on the electrical conditions in which it operates. "Knowing which parts of a catalyst are active is only the starting point.
We also need to understand how their behavior changes under different operating conditions," said assistant professor Mao Xianwen from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at NUS CDE, who led the research. "DELINE allows us to zoom into these differences. Its applicability to other electrocatalysts and reactions means it could guide the design of materials that use electricity more efficiently, with benefits extending from hydrogen production to other chemical processes." The findings were published in Nature Catalysis on Aug. 13, 2026, and featured on the cover of its September issue.
Many catalytic reactions do not produce light, making individual events difficult to observe under a microscope. DELINE links the reaction being studied to a much faster follow-on reaction that produces a fluorescent signal. Recording where these signals appear reveals activity across the catalyst's surface while it is working.
The team demonstrated this approach using thin catalytic gold plates to study water dissociation. In this step, water splits at the metal surface, leaving attached hydrogen that can subsequently form hydrogen gas. It also produces hydroxide ions, negatively charged groups containing oxygen and hydrogen.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
