51�Թ�

The material, based on a framework of ruthenium, fulfils the requirements of the 'Kitaev quantum spin liquid state' -- an elusive phenomenon that scientists have been trying to understand for decades.

For the current study, the team focused on a catalyst called ruthenium dioxide that speeds up the oxygen half of the reaction, since that's the bottleneck in the process.

Among these, ruthenium -- a platinum group metal -- has emerged as an important and commonly used catalyst.

"Almost every chemical, every plastic that we use on a day-to-day basis, came from a catalytic process, and many of these catalytic processes rely on precious metals like platinum, rhodium, ruthenium and others," Bayles said.

For their experiment, the team exposed a thin layer of ruthenium dioxide to X-rays.