Materials for Catalysis in Energy: Volume 1446

Growing demand for energy and the need to reduce our society's carbon footprint call for transformative measures to increase efficiency in energy consumption and sustainable methods of energy production and storage. Novel materials will be key to these transformative technologies by acting as catalysts and facilitating desired chemical transformations. Symposium U of the 2012 MRS Spring Meeting, 'Materials for Catalysis in Energy', was held April 10–13. The objective of the organisers was to bring together researchers from materials science, chemical synthesis, heterogeneous catalysis, electrocatalysis and photocatalysis to highlight recent progress and discuss challenges and opportunities in the materials aspect of catalysis research and development for energy applications. Close to 200 abstracts were received and about 150 papers were presented, demonstrating the significant interest from the broader catalysis community. This volume contains a cross-section of papers presented and highlights the interdisciplinary nature of this research area.

1. Hydrogen generation for 500 hours by photoelectrolysis of water using GaN W. Ohara, D. Uchida, T. Hayashi, M. Deura and K. Ohkawa; 2. Spray-deposited Co-Pt catalyzed BiVO4: a low-cost route towards highly efficient photoanodes Fatwa F. Abdi, Nienke Firet, Ali Dabirian and Roel van de Krol; 3. Artificial photosynthesis – use of a ferroelectric photocatalyst Steve Dunn and Matt Stock; 4. Copper tungstate (CuWO4)-based materials for photoelectrochemical hydrogen production Nicolas Gaillard, Yuancheng Chang, Artur Braun and Alexander DeAngelis; 5. Oxygen reduction reaction electrocatalytic activity of SAD-Pt/GLAD-Cr nanorods Wisam J. Khudhayer, Nancy Kariuki, Deborah J. Myers, Ali U. Shaikh and Tansel Karabacak; 6. Study of co-assembled conducting polymers for enhanced ethanol electro-oxidation reaction Le Q. Hoa, Hiroyuki Yoshikawa, Masato Saito and Eiichi Tamiya; 7. Preparation and characterization of platinum/ceria-based catalysts for methanol electro-oxidation in alkaline medium Christian L. Menéndez, Ana-Rita Mayol and Carlos R. Cabrera; 8. In situ spectroscopic characterization of some LaNi1-x Cox O3 perovskite catalysts active for CH4 reforming reactions Rosa Pereñiguez, Victor M. Gonzalez-Delacruz, Fatima Ternero, Juan P. Holgado and Alfonso Caballero; 9. Methane combustion using CeO2-CuO fiber catalysts Felipe A. Berutti, Raquel P. Reolon, Annelise K. Alves and Carlos P. Bergmann; 10. Role of surface oxide layer during CO2 reduction at copper electrodes Cheng-Chun Tsai, Joel Bugayong and Gregory L. Griffin; 11. Porous metal oxides as catalysts Boxun Hu, Christopher Brooks, Eric Kreidler and Steven L. Suib; 12. Role of Pt nanoparticles in photoreactions on TiO2 photoelectrodes Woo-Jin An, Wei-Ning Wang, Balavinayagam Ramalingam, Somik Mukherjee, Dariusz M. Niedzwiedzki, Shubhra Gangopadhyay and Pratim Biswas; 13. Metal oxides as catalyst promoters for methanol oxidation Praveen Kolla, Kimberly Kerce, Hao Fong and Alevtina Smirnova; 14. Supported Ni catalyst made by electroless Ni-B plating for diesel autothermal reforming Zetao Xia, Liang Hong, Wei Wang and Zhaolin Liu; 15. Shape-controlled synthesis of silver and palladium nanocrystals using ß-cyclodextrin Gilles Berhault, Hafedh Kochkar and Abdelhamid Ghorbel.

Symposium U of the 2012 MRS Spring Meeting, 'Materials for Catalysis in Energy', was held April 10-13. Researchers were brought together to highlight recent progress and discuss challenges and opportunities in the materials aspect of catalysis research and development for energy applications.