A team led by Prof. Tao Zhang and Prof. Yanqiang Huang at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), working with Prof. Wei Liu of DICP and Prof. Yanggang Wang of the Southern University of Science and Technology, has directly tracked oxygen movement in catalysts. Using environmental transmission electron microscopy, they observed bulk oxygen spillover in Ru/rutile-TiO2 catalysts for the first time. The discovery points to new ways of using the interior of catalysts, which has often been overlooked. The findings were published in Nature on April 15, 2026. What Is Oxygen Spillover in Catalysis In catalytic reactions, spillover refers to the movement of atoms or molecules such as hydrogen or oxygen between a metal and the material that supports it. Most past research has focused on spillover occurring along the surface of catalysts.…