[jkqwzsoo]

Or even "trace platinum dissolved in liquid gallium". The solubility at "room temp" (40 ˚C is quite hot for a room) is only about ~50 ppm. It's kind of like calling sea water "room-temperature liquid sodium chloride".

[ianai]

Whinging about titles gets taken a little far here sometimes. From the article:

“But without the platinum there, it doesn't happen. This is completely different from any other catalysis anyone has shown, that I'm aware of. And this is something that can only have been shown through the modeling."

Likening this to sea water leaves a lot to be desired.

[gopalv]

> This is completely different from any other catalysis anyone has shown, that I'm aware of

The part right before that is much more interesting. I quote

  >> The platinum is actually a little bit below the surface and it's activating the gallium atoms around it. So the magic is happening on the gallium under the influence of platinum.

So the gallium is doing the catalysis, but only when a platinum atom is somewhere around the gallium - spooky action at a distance stuff.

With Gallium doing the work, that explains "why we need so little platinum" detail.

Actual paper here - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41557-022-00965-6

The specific catalysis they're doing is "electrochemical methanol oxidation", so I assume this is a direct Methanol fuel cell catalyst.

[wrycoder]

Hopefully, someone is trying this in a LENR cell.

[sumy23]

Yes, especially because the notable part is that the liquid mixture is acting as a catalyst in the same way that the solid platinum was.

"It's kind of like calling sea water "room-temperature liquid sodium chloride"." It would be extremely impressive if you could make sodium chloride thousands of times more potent by dissolving it in water.

[Ancapistani]

Oh, no.

“Precious metal homeopathy”

[benreesman]

It’s human nature that condemns us to these nerd anatomy measuring exercises. I’ve personally long since accepted that.

But in theory it could be a competition to build up, rather than tear down, things that most commenters don’t know jack shit about anyways.

C’est la vie.

[inimino]

It's not just the title:

> When combined with gallium, the platinum becomes soluble. In other words, it melts,

That's not what that word means, and the audience for this article probably knows the difference between "melt" and "dissolve". They could just describe the research as it actually is instead of trying to make it sound like something more amazing to get clicks.

[CPLX]

> the audience for this article probably knows the difference between "melt" and "dissolve”

Not if they watched The Wizard of Oz as children.

[wolfi1]

40°C in that regard is room temperature