{"id":247322,"date":"2026-11-14T03:21:49","date_gmt":"2026-11-14T09:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/11\/a-perfect-couple-chromium-keeps-ruthenium-grounded-in-water-electrolysis"},"modified":"2026-11-14T03:21:49","modified_gmt":"2026-11-14T09:21:49","slug":"a-perfect-couple-chromium-keeps-ruthenium-grounded-in-water-electrolysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/11\/a-perfect-couple-chromium-keeps-ruthenium-grounded-in-water-electrolysis","title":{"rendered":"A perfect couple: Chromium keeps ruthenium grounded in water electrolysis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>They say opposites attract, and many couples do fit this pattern. One is pragmatic and down-to-earth, while the other is a dreamer with their head in the clouds. Yet, these differences make them perfect for each other. According to researchers at ICFO, chemical interactions between atoms are not that different. Ruthenium, for instance, belongs to the \u201cdreamer\u201d class. It is commonly used in single-atom catalysts that speed up water electrolysis, which splits water to obtain green hydrogen. However, on its own, ruthenium tends to over-oxidize and dissolve during operation, like an idealist who takes flight without looking back.<\/p>\n<p>In an article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41563-026-02783-4\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in <i>Nature Materials<\/i>, ICFO researchers Tengyu Chen, Dr. Kaiwen Wang, Dr. Lu Xia, Dr. Wulyu Jiang, Dr. Linlin Yang, Dr. Kaiqi Zhao, Ranit Ram, Dr. Junmei Chen, Dr. Marinos Dimitropoulos, Dr. Viktoria Golovanova, Prathama Haldar, Dr. Barbara Polesso, Aparna M. Das and Dr. Sunil Kadam, led by ICFO professor F. Pelayo Garc\u00eda de Arquer, now present the perfect partner to keep ruthenium grounded: chromium.<\/p>\n<p>The work was carried out in close collaboration with the University of Bayreuth, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, the Institut de Recerca en Energia de Catalunya (IREC), the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), Chongqing University and the National Institute for Space Research (INPE).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>They say opposites attract, and many couples do fit this pattern. One is pragmatic and down-to-earth, while the other is a dreamer with their head in the clouds. Yet, these differences make them perfect for each other. According to researchers at ICFO, chemical interactions between atoms are not that different. Ruthenium, for instance, belongs to [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,4,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chemistry","category-nanotechnology","category-particle-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247322\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}