A team of researchers led by Phillip Christopher, assistant professor of chemical and environmental engineering at the University of California, Riverside's Bourns College of Engineering, demonstrated this—as well as how these catalysts look in action—in a paper published Monday, Sept. 19, in the journal Nature Chemistry.
Titled, "Adsorbate-mediated strong metal-support interactions in oxide-supported Rh catalysts," the paper describes a new approach to dynamically tune how a catalyst operates, enabling the researchers to control and optimize the product made in the reaction. The team, which includes scientists from the University of California, Irvine and Columbia University, also used advanced microscopy and spectroscopy approaches to view the catalyst in action on an atomic scale.
The researchers focused on an important chemical reaction that involves the conversion of carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide and synthetic natural gas. The benefits of this reaction are two-fold: it offers the potential for the removal of harmful carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and the carbon monoxide and natural gas produced can be used as a chemical precursor and fuel, respectively. The team focused on understanding how the catalyst drives the reaction at the atomic scale, which will allow researchers to modify the catalyst's properties to increase efficiency in the reaction.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday September 22 2016, @06:08PM
Makes you wonder how some people still manage to botch executions all these years later...