Laboratory for ElectroCatalysis

11/08/2026

🔬 New research with our contribution! ⚡️ 😸

A new study titled “The Effect of Cathode Catalyst Layer Composition on Hydrogen Crossover and Performance in Anion Exchange Membrane Water Electrolysis” has been published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

Our PhD student Mitja Kostelec contributed to the study during his research training. 👏 😎

The researchers investigated how the composition of the cathode catalyst layer affects hydrogen crossover and the performance of anion exchange membrane water electrolysis — an important technology for the efficient and sustainable production of green hydrogen. ⚡💧

International research visits like this are a valuable opportunity to exchange knowledge, gain new expertise and strengthen collaboration across institutions.

Congratulations to Mitja and the entire research team! 🎉

🔗 https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.6c06592

AbstractA major challenge in AEM electrolysis is the undesired hydrogen permeation from the cathode to the anode—the so-called hydrogen crossover. Although

11/08/2026

We are very happy to share our latest paper and, especially, another great collaboration within the National Institute of Chemistry! 🎉

What makes this work particularly exciting for us is seeing how materials can travel across research fields. The Ru/TiON–GO catalysts prepared by Marjan Bele and previously investigated by Milutin Smiljanić for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1385894725050399 have now shown excellent activity in a completely different application — electrochemical immunosensing.

Together with our colleagues, the same electrocatalytic properties that make these materials promising for hydrogen production were harnessed to amplify the electrochemical signal in a PSA immunosensor. The resulting platform achieved sensitive and selective detection, including in human serum.

It is a great example of how collaboration across departments can reveal entirely new possibilities for materials originally designed with another application in mind. 🔬⚡🧬

Congratulations to Mitja Koderman, Milutin Smiljanić, Filip Cernatič, Marjan Bele, Francisco Ruiz-Zepeda, Nejc Hodnik, Mitja Kolar, Samo B. Hočevar and especially Nikola Tasić!

📄 Electrocatalytically Amplified Immunosensing Enabled by Titanium Oxynitride-Supported Ru Nanodots on Graphene Oxide Hybrid Architecture, published in Small.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smll.74840?utm_source=researchgate.net&utm_medium=article

06/08/2026

🔬 another publication from our⚡️😺 team!

Now we answer a basic question: What happens to polycrystalline iron, cobalt, and nickel bulk electrodes surfaces while they operate the alkaline oxygen evolution reaction?

In our latest paper, published in Electrochimica Acta, we used identical-location scanning electron microscopy platform including EDS and EBSD to follow the same regions of Fe, Co, and Ni electrodes over 3,000 electrochemical OER activation cycles.

Our results show that electrode reconstruction is strongly influenced by the original microstructure—including crystallographic orientation, grain boundaries, and processing-induced deformation. 💪

Among the investigated materials, nickel developed a thick, porous nickel oxyhydroxide layer and exhibited the highest OER activity, followed by cobalt and iron. The findings highlight microstructure engineering as a promising strategy for improving non-noble-metal electrodes for alkaline water electrolysis. 😎

Congratulations to the authors:
Madis Lüsi, Luka Suhadolnik, Črtomir Donik, Irena Paulin, Marjan Bele, and Nejc Hodnik. 👏

We truly appreciate the contribution of as metallurgy knowledge and characterization was crucial for this study.

📄 Read the paper:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013468626015690

26/07/2026

🎉 Congratulations to our Aleš and all co-authors on their new paper in ChemElectroChem! By combining identical-location SEM with a gas-diffusion-electrode platform, the team directly tracked Pt/C catalyst degradation at fuel-cell-relevant current densities, showing that isolated nanoparticles mainly undergo dissolution and redeposition, while particle-rich regions are more prone to detachment and agglomeration. An important step toward understanding and improving the durability of fuel-cell electrocatalysts! 👏🔬
ChemElectroChem - 2026 - Marsel - Identical‐Location SEM Tracking of Pt C Gas Diffusion Electrode Degradation at.pdf
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A combined identical-location scanning electron microscopy (IL-SEM) and gas diffusion electrode (GDE) platform directly tracks Pt/C catalyst degradation at realistic current densities up to ˜ 1 A cm−...

26/07/2026

As Ožbej celebrates his PhD defence, his paper goes online in ACS Catalysis! 🙏 🫡
⚡️😸
The study addresses a deceptively simple but fundamental question: How does nickel begin to oxidize in alkaline media? By exploring the earliest stages of this surface transformation, the work provides new insight into the activation and reconstruction of Ni-based electrodes under electrochemical conditions.
Congratulations to our Dušan for leading and to the entire team on this excellent work! 👏
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AbstractOxygenated species formed by the anodic oxidation of nickel play a central role in diverse electrochemical technologies from passivation to electro

26/07/2026

🎉 Congratulations to our Milena Šetka and to our colleagues from Maribor (and Split) on this excellent joint research and publication!
Another great example of successful collaboration within Slovenia (and Croatia). It is always a pleasure to combine our complementary expertise and work together! 🇸🇮🤝
Read the article in ChemCatChem:

Independent control of nitrogen speciation and hierarchical porosity in polyHIPE-derived carbon foams enables mechanistic insight into metal-free oxygen reduction. Pyrrolic and hydrogenated-pyridinic...

23/07/2026

🎓 Congratulations, Dr. Ožbej Vodeb!

We are delighted to congratulate Ožbej on the successful defence of his PhD thesis, “Comparing Simulation and Experiments for Interpreting the Mechanisms of Electrochemical Oxidation.”

Ožbej has become a true expert in electrochemical modelling and simulation, using these powerful tools to explain the mechanisms hidden behind experimental electrochemical data. His work represents an important bridge between experiments, mathematical modelling, and a deeper understanding of electrochemistry.

Well done, Ožbej—we are very proud of you and wish you every success also in the future! 👏🥂

You will always be important part of our ElectroCat⚡️😸 team or in your case Electrokitty :)

15/07/2026

🎉 New paper in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters!

The work was carried out during Greta P. Grossman’s research visit to our lab, hosted by our Dušan Strmčnik.

The study reveals the formation of a solvent-related adsorbed layer at the Au(111)/acetonitrile interface.

Congratulations to Greta and the whole team! 👏

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Fundamental understanding of the electrochemistry at metal/nonaqueous solvent interfaces is of importance both for improving organic solvent based electrochemical devices and also for generalizing theories of interfacial electrochemistry that were developed based on aqueous solvents. Herein we repor...

05/07/2026

Do not forget to relax!

21/06/2026

Very happy to share another joint paper with our colleagues from Belgrade:
“Tin as a morphological promoter: ultrahigh-surface-area bifunctional Co–Sn electrodes for scalable alkaline water electrolysis”
In this work, we show how tin can act as a morphological promoter in Co–Sn electrodes, enabling ultrahigh surface area and bifunctional activity for alkaline water electrolysis. ⚡️😸
Many thanks to Jelena, Mila and Uroš for all the effort, excellent work and a great paper!🙏🙏
We are looking forward to continuing this collaboration and to many more exciting results together.✊️💪👌🤟
Paper:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jechem.2026.05.070
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