Posted on November 17, 2009 |
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Recently, cutting-edge work by Paul Dimick, a fifth year doctoral student in Chemical Engineering, led to a structural understanding of a synergistic low-temperature bimetallic catalyst. By using a surface-tailored microstructure that makes nitric oxide dissociation more efficient, Paul—with the help of his research group and his advisor, Dr. Charles Lyman of Materials Science and Engineering—developed a strategy for minimizing nitrous oxide production with enhanced catalytic activity.
The end result of this novel nanoparticle tailoring is a selective bimetallic platinum-rhodium catalyst five times more active than platinum alone. This translates to being able to use five times less catalyst—and five times less precious metal during low-temperature nitric oxide reduction with hydrogen. As Paul puts it, “It’s amazing that such small changes in metal composition have such a huge impact on performance.”
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