Exploring the role of surface hydrophilicity of non-precious metal N-doped carbon electrocatalysts in electrocatalysis is challenging. Herein we discover an ultra-hydrophilic non-precious carbon electrocatalyst, showing enhanced catalysis efficiency on both gravimetric and areal basis for oxygen reduction reaction due to a high dispersion of active centres.

The H(2)-NO(3)(-) electrochemical cell using nitrate reduction on a non-precious cathode catalyst shows much improved efficiency despite ∼75% reduction of Pt metal loading as compared to typical PEMFCs using typical ORR on precious catalysts.

M ODERN dental practice makes wide use of precious metal alloys in wire form as partial denture clasps and as orthodontic appliances. When used in such applications, these alloys are subject only to bend loading and never to pure tensile loading. For this reason, there has long been a feeling within the dental profession that the tensile test for wires was somewhat inappropriate and might be re...

Nb, Ta and Zr are the favorable non-toxic alloying elements for titanium alloys for biomedical applications. Low rigidity titanium alloys composed of non-toxic elements are getting much attention. The advantage of low rigidity titanium alloy for the healing of bone fracture and the remodeling of bone is successfully proved by fracture model made in tibia of rabbit. Ni-free super elastic and sha...

A new non-precious metal oxygen reduction catalyst was developed via heat treatment of in situ polymerized polyaniline onto TiO(2) particles in the presence of Fe species. The TiO(2) provides for improved performance relative to a carbon black-based catalyst and, at a high catalyst loading, allows for reducing the performance gap between non-precious-metal catalyst and Pt/C to ca. 20 mV in RDE ...

We develop a facile method for the synthesis of an iron phthalocyanine (FePc) and nitrogen-doped graphene (NG) composite as a novel and efficient non-precious catalyst in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The resulting product exhibits superior ORR catalytic activity, excellent tolerance to methanol crossover, and comparable stability to commercial Pt/C, which leads to the invention of a new...