Addressing a Burning Issue: Complete combustion of methane is required in order to avoid the unproductive emission of this greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. Palladium catalysts can help to promote complete combustion, but high-temperature operating conditions also promote aggregation of catalyst particles (“sintering”) that lowers their surface area and overall activity. Cargnello et al. (p. 713 ; see the Perspective by Farrauto ) report that cerium oxide–coated Pd catalyst particles could be fully dispersed on an alumina surface prepared with a hydrophobic coating. This treatment resisted Pd sintering up to temperatures of 800°C, and also enabled complete combustion of methane to occur at temperatures as low as 400°C.

The electrolysis of has been examined in a solid oxide electrolyzer (SOE) using a ceramic electrode based on (LSCM), infiltrated into a yttria-stabilized zirconia scaffold together with 0.5 wt % Pd supported on 5 wt % . An SOE with this electrode exhibited a total cell impedance of at 1073 K for operation in mixtures. An additional benefit is that the electrode was shown to be redox stable, with LSCM exhibiting good conductivity in both oxidizing and reducing environments, so that the cell can operate in pure .