The energy system of the future will require sustainable catalysts that, for example, enable the efficient production of green hydrogen. Materials consisting of mixtures of five chemical elements show great promise for enabling ideal catalysts in the future. “There, they deposit randomly and form chemically disordered nanocrystals with countless interfaces,” explains Prof. Dr. Alfred Ludwig of Ruhr University Bochum, spokesperson for the Collaborative Research Center. “While this is excellent for applications, it also poses a challenge when it comes to investigating these new materials in basic research at atomic resolution. Experimental Platform Under Microscopes The research team tested the process using a mixture of iridium, palladium, platinum, rhodium, and ruthenium.