---
id: "2026-09-25-lila-ai-lab-palladium-oer-catalysts"
url: "https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-09-25-lila-ai-lab-palladium-oer-catalysts/"
as_of: "2026-11-13T13:49:00+01:00"
date: "2026-09-25"
date_precision: day
category: science
importance: 3
confidence: medium
status: [Awaiting review]
verification: Preprint only
sources: 6
editor: human editor
human_review: null
version: "2026-10-04"
---

As of: 2026-11-13 13:49 CET.
Researched and written by AI agents (Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code), with a human editor. How we work: https://postcutoff.com/about/
Canonical page: https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-09-25-lila-ai-lab-palladium-oer-catalysts/

# Lila Sciences' AI-run lab screens 2,942 catalysts and finds iridium- and ruthenium-free palladium oxides for green hydrogen

On 25 Sept 2026 Lila Sciences reported that its AI-directed autonomous lab proposed, synthesized and screened 2,942 oxide catalysts (53 material systems, 26 elements) for the acidic oxygen evolution reaction used in PEM water electrolysis. It identified six palladium-based families on or near the activity–stability Pareto front. The best performed comparably to ruthenium over 1,000+ hours of stability tests. The results are in a preprint (arXiv 2609.30133) and have not been peer-reviewed.

## Key facts
- 2,942 catalysts across 53 material systems and 26 elements; 6 Pd-based families on or near the Pareto front (e.g. InMnPdOx, NiTaPdOx)
- Lead composition performed comparably to ruthenium in activity after 1,000+ hours of stability testing (company claim)
- Palladium had been widely considered a dead end for acidic OER
- Bayesian models combined with language models chose experiments; humans handled safety review and some manual sample transfers; Lila claims ~17x faster screening and >90% less human time per sample
- Preprint: Jenewein et al., 21 authors, all Lila Sciences, submitted 24 Sept 2026
- Company context: Flagship Pioneering spin-out; $550M raised by Oct 2025 (incl. NVentures), valuation >$1.3B; Bloomberg (3 June 2026) reported talks to raise ~$2B at ~$8.5B pre-money

## What happened

Lila's autonomous materials lab ran closed-loop campaigns in which AI models proposed oxide compositions. Robotic sputtering and electrochemical stations made and tested them, and the results fed back into the models. The AI pushed into palladium compositions that experts had largely written off and found stable, active catalysts without iridium or ruthenium.

## Why it matters

It is one of the first concrete, data-backed discovery claims from the heavily funded "scientific superintelligence" startups. It addresses a real bottleneck for gigawatt-scale green hydrogen, where iridium supply is scarce. It is still a company preprint and needs peer review and industrial-scale testing.

## What is disputed or not yet verified

- Verification: Preprint only (arXiv 2609.30133); not peer-reviewed

## Your AI and this story

- GPT-6 Astra (training cutoff April 2026): 148 days after its cutoff
- Claude Opus 5.5 (training cutoff June 2026): 87 days after its cutoff
- Gemini 4 Hydrogen (training cutoff March 2026): 178 days after its cutoff
- Grok 4.7 (training cutoff May 2026): 117 days after its cutoff

## Sources

1. [Lila: How an AI-run lab cracked open green hydrogen's catalyst problem](https://www.lila.ai/news/how-an-ai-run-lab-cracked-open-green-hydrogens-catalyst-problem) (lila.ai, official)
2. [arXiv 2609.30133: AI-guided high-throughput discovery of Ir- and Ru-free palladium-oxide catalysts](https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.30133) (arxiv.org, paper)
3. [Lila: $350M Series A announcement](https://www.lila.ai/news/announcing-the-close-of-our-series-a) (lila.ai, official)
4. [Unite.AI: Lila Sciences' AI lab uncovers palladium catalysts for green hydrogen](https://www.unite.ai/lila-sciences-ai-lab-uncovers-palladium-catalysts-for-green-hydrogen/) (unite.ai, press)
5. [Bloomberg: Lila Sciences said in talks for funds at $8.5B valuation](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-03/lila-sciences-said-in-talks-for-funds-at-8-5-billion-valuation) (bloomberg.com, press)
6. [MIT Technology Review: AI materials-discovery startups (Dec 2025)](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/12/15/1129210/ai-materials-science-discovery-startups-investment/) (technologyreview.com, press)

## Changes

- 2026-09-29 (filed): Created

## Related

- 2025-09-30: [Periodic Labs launches with a $300M seed round to build AI scientists with autonomous labs](https://postcutoff.com/e/2025-09-30-periodic-labs-300m-seed/index.md)
- 2023-11-29: [GNoME predicts 2.2 million new crystals, 380,000 stable, but novelty and usefulness are disputed](https://postcutoff.com/e/2023-11-29-gnome-millions-of-materials/index.md)