The selection of oxide materials for catalyzing the oxygen evolution reaction in acid-based electrolyzers must be guided by the proper balance between activity, stability and conductivity—a challenging mission of great importance for delivering affordable and environmentally friendly hydrogen. Here we report that the highly conductive nanoporous architecture of an iridium oxide shell on a metallic iridium core, formed through the fast dealloying of osmium from an Ir25Os75 alloy, exhibits an exceptional balance between oxygen evolution activity and stability as quantified by the activity-stability factor. On the basis of this metric, the nanoporous Ir/IrO2 morphology of dealloyed Ir25Os75 shows a factor of ~30 improvement in activity-stability factor relative to conventional iridium-based oxide materials, and an ~8 times improvement over dealloyed Ir25Os75 nanoparticles due to optimized stability and conductivity, respectively. We propose that the activity-stability factor is a key “metric” for determining the technological relevance of oxide-based anodic water electrolyzer catalysts.

A spatial confiment of polysulfides using the metal compound additives having polar surfaces has been considered to be a promising approach to address the insufficient rate capability and cyclability of lithium–sulfur batteries. Herein, we report a more effective approach outperforming this conventional one: a heterogeneous catalysis to promote polysulfide fragmentations. It was revealed using combined computational and experimental approaches that an ultrastrong adsorption of elemental sulfur on TiN surfaces resulted in a spontaenous fragmentation into shorter chains of polysulfides. This heterogeneous catalysis reaction improved the sluggish kinetics of polysulfide reduction because of the chemical disproportionation at the second plateau. A markedly enhanced rate capability was finally obtained, exhibiting a discharge capacity of 700 mAh g–1 at a scan rate of 5C.

The results suggest that readings from the rebound tonometer significantly overestimated those from the applanation tonometer and that the rebound tonometer was tolerated well because of the rapid and minimal stress-inducing method of tonometry in the Eurasian Eagle owls, even without topical anesthesia. Further studies comparing TonoVet with manometric measurements may be necessary to employ rebound tonometer for routine clinical use in Eurasian Eagle owls.

Ag is considered to be among the most promising electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in alkaline media and is suitable for application in various electrochemical energy devices such as metal–air batteries and alkaline fuel cells. In this study, we studied the role of the electronic effects induced by strong metal support interactions in Ag/Mn3O4/C in enhancing the ORR activity in alkaline media. Ag supported on Mn3O4 showed a much higher ORR activity than Ag supported on carbon, and an upshift in the d-band center was observed in the former case, due to charge transfer from Ag to Mn. Further, the strain effect observed by X-ray absorption fine structure analysis, induced an increase in the O–O bond split kinetics due to upshift of the d-band center, resulting in enhanced ORR activity on Ag/Mn3O4/C. In conclusion, we propose that in-depth consideration of electronic effects is essential when designing metal/metal oxide catalysts for the ORR in alkaline media.

The IOP obtained by the TonoVet(®) and TonoPen XL(®) would be affected by variations in the CCT. Therefore, the CCT should be considered when interpreting IOP values measured by tonometers in dogs.