A self-driving laboratory advances the Pareto front for material properties.

Useful materials must satisfy multiple objectives, where the optimization of one objective is often at the expense of another. The Pareto front reports the optimal trade-offs between these conflicting objectives. Here we use a self-driving laboratory, Ada, to define the Pareto front of conductivities and processing temperatures for palladium films formed by combustion synthesis. Ada discovers new synthesis conditions that yield metallic films at lower processing temperatures (below 200 °C) relative to the prior art for this technique (250 °C). This temperature difference makes possible the coating of different commodity plastic materials (e.g., Nafion, polyethersulfone). These combustion synthesis conditions enable us to to spray coat uniform palladium films with moderate conductivity (1.1 × 105 S m-1) at 191 °C. Spray coating at 226 °C yields films with conductivities (2.0 × 106 S m-1) comparable to those of sputtered films (2.0 to 5.8 × 106 S m-1). This work shows how a self-driving laboratoy can discover materials that provide optimal trade-offs between conflicting objectives.

Quantification of the Effect of an External Magnetic Field on Water Oxidation with Cobalt Oxide Anodes.

Here, we quantify the effect of an external magnetic field (ß) on the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) for a cobalt oxide|fluorine-doped tin oxide coated glass (CoOx|FTO) anode. A bespoke apparatus enables us to precisely determine the relationship between magnetic flux density (ß) and OER activity at the surface of a CoOx|FTO anode. The apparatus includes a strong NdFeB magnet (ßmax = 450 ± 1 mT) capable of producing a magnetic field of 371 ± 1 mT at the surface of the anode. The distance between the magnet and the anode surface is controlled by a linear actuator, enabling submillimeter distance positioning of the magnet relative to the anode surface. We couple this apparatus with a finite element analysis magnetic model that was validated by Hall probe measurements to determine the value of ß at the anode surface. At the largest tested magnetic field strength of ß = 371 ± 1 mT, a 4.7% increase in current at 1.5 V vs the normal hydrogen electrode (NHE) and a change in the Tafel slope of 14.5 mV/dec were observed. We demonstrate through a series of OER measurements at sequential values of ß that the enhancement consists of two distinct regions. The possible use of this effect to improve the energy efficiency of commercial water electrolyzers is discussed, and major challenges pertaining to the accurate measurement of the phenomenon are demonstrated.