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Along with gaseous reactive nitrogen, satellites burning up as they re-enter the atmosphere at the end of their lives leave tiny particles of aluminum oxide, imperilling the still-recovering ozone layer.

The cell is composed of platinum, aluminum oxide, and a super thin, 10 nanometer polymer film.

"It was relatively easy to do these treatments and get big changes in catalytic behavior, which is surprising because aluminum oxide is famously not reactive -- it is very stable," Bayles said.

The typical, trusty aluminum Josephson junction is made of two layers of aluminum and a middle layer of aluminum oxide.

The first step in making aluminum is to mine a rock called bauxite, which is rich in aluminum oxide, also known as alumina.