Proton exchange membrane water electrolyzer (PEMWE) in acidic media is a hopeful scenario for hydrogen production by using renewable energy sources, but the grand challenge lies in substituting active and stable noble-metal catalysts. Herein, a robust electrocatalyst of V-CoP2 porous nanowires arranged on carbon cloth is successfully fabricated via incorporating vanadium into CoP2 lattice. Structural characterizations and theoretical analysis indicate that lattice expansion of CoP2 caused by V incorporation results in the upshift of d-band center, which is conducive to hydrogen adsorption for boosting HER activity. Besides, V promotes surface reconstruction to generate a thicker Co3O4 layer that enhances acid-corrosion resistance and optimizes the adsorption of water and oxygen-containing species, thus improving OER activity and stability. Accordingly, it presents a superior acidic overall water splitting activity (1.47 V@10 mA cm -2 ) over Pt-C/CC||RuO2/CC, and remarkable stability. This work proposes a new route to design efficient electrocatalysts via lattice engineering for PEMWE.

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Multi-scale models can facilitate whole plant simulations by linking gene networks, protein synthesis, metabolic pathways, physiology, and growth. Whole plant models can be further integrated with ecosystem, weather, and climate models to predict how various interactions respond to environmental perturbations. These models have the potential to fill in missing mechanistic details and generate new hypotheses to prioritize directed engineering efforts. Outcomes will potentially accelerate improvement of crop yield, sustainability, and increase future food security. It is time for a paradigm shift in plant modeling, from largely isolated efforts to a connected community that takes advantage of advances in high performance computing and mechanistic understanding of plant processes. Tools for guiding future crop breeding and engineering, understanding the implications of discoveries at the molecular level for whole plant behavior, and improved prediction of plant and ecosystem responses to the environment are urgently needed. The purpose of this perspective is to introduce Crops in silico (cropsinsilico.org), an integrative and multi-scale modeling platform, as one solution that combines isolated modeling efforts toward the generation of virtual crops, which is open and accessible to the entire plant biology community. The major challenges involved both in the development and deployment of a shared, multi-scale modeling platform, which are summarized in this prospectus, were recently identified during the first Crops in silico Symposium and Workshop.

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