(February 9, 2012) University of California, Berkeley, chemists
are reimagining catalysts in ways that could have a profound impact on the
chemical industry as well as on the growing market for hydrogen fuel cell
vehicles.
Catalysts are materials ‑
typically metals ‑ that speed up chemical reactions and are widely used in
the synthesis of chemicals and drugs. They also are employed in automobile
catalytic converters to change combustion chemicals into less-polluting
emissions and in fuel cells to convert water into hydrogen.
The problem with catalysts,
however, is that chemical reactions occur only at edges of or defects in the
material, while the bulk of the metal – often expensive platinum – is inactive
and wasted.
In an article appearing this week
in the journal Science, UC Berkeley chemists show how to construct a catalyst
composed only of edges and demonstrate that it can catalyze the production of
hydrogen from water as readily as the edges and defects in regular catalysts.