Lanthanum nickel oxide or LNO, belongs to a promising class of catalytic materials known as perovskites, used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen is the first step in generating hydrogen fuel. Several manufacturers have produced electric cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells. A research team from Stanford and the DoE's SLAC National Accelerator were able to see how surface transformation boosts the catalyst activity and could potentially apply to other materials with the ability to fine tune their behavior.