Soft landing metal-based molecules create active, easy-to-separate catalyst
Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 11:50
in Physics & Chemistry
A vanadium-based catalyst's effectiveness in acidic liquids can be mimicked on a solid, less-toxic surface, thanks to scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Purdue University, and National Dong Hwa University in China. The team used an ion soft landing technique to gently deposit catalytic and acidic molecules on a tailored, "dry" surface. This new material drives the reaction in a similar fashion to the liquid-phase version, and it is better in one significant way: the catalyst is on a solid surface, making it easy to separate from the remaining reactants and products after the reactions. This avoids expensive post-processing steps.