TECHNOLOGY
Catalyst Technology for our Planet and Future Generations
What is a Catalyst?
Definition of catalyst
What comes to your mind when you hear the word ‘catalyst’?
If you’re interested in cars, you might have thought of emissions reduction devices, or if you’re interested in life sciences, you might have thought of enzymes.
Or, you may have thought of a hot pack that warms your hands during a cold winter day.
Catalysts play a crucial role in our daily lives by facilitating processes that help us save energy, transform raw materials into valuable products, and remove harmful pollutants for a cleaner and healthier environment.
An excellent example of this is the implementation of the Clean Air Act of 1970, which required all vehicles to be equipped with a catalytic converter to address severe air pollution. As a result, there was a significant and visible improvement in LA’s air quality.
This transformation occurs through a chemical reaction that requires a specific activation level, which varies based on the material being used. The primary function of a catalyst is to accelerate this reaction by reducing the amount of energy needed to activate it.
The most widely used precious metals in catalytic converters consist of platinum, palladium, and rhodium.
Despite their effectiveness, there is one significant limitation: These platinum group metals require high activation temperatures. In other words, until temperatures of 250-500°C are reached, nothing much happens.
Overcoming this limitation would have significant implications for reducing energy consumption and improving efficiency in industrial catalytic processes. Lower activation temperatures would enable catalysts to be used for indoor air quality, hydrogen power plant safety, clean energy, and meeting higher standards of environmental regulations.
In 1987, a groundbreaking study showed that gold nanoparticles could initiate catalytic reactions at room temperature with exceptional efficiency. The use of these nanoparticles has the potential to drastically reduce the cost of raw materials, as they are much more cost-effective than traditional platinum group catalysts, while ensuring high economic efficiency.
So why haven’t we been using gold nanocatalysts?
Despite the numerous advantages, the commercial use of gold nanocatalysts has been limited due to the issue of clumping, which renders the gold nanoparticles inactive… until now.
QuantumCat developed nanocages that individually hold gold nanoparticles to prevent clumping and deactivation, thereby enabling the world’s first commercialization of gold nanocatalysts.
