{"id":133476,"date":"2023-01-30T10:42:19","date_gmt":"2023-01-30T15:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133476///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133476//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133476//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133476//?p=133476"},"modified":"2024-05-16T12:45:24","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T16:45:24","slug":"ucf-researchers-work-to-reduce-the-amount-of-precious-metals-in-catalytic-converters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133476///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133476//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133476//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133476//ucf-researchers-work-to-reduce-the-amount-of-precious-metals-in-catalytic-converters/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133476//","title":{"rendered":"Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Researchers Work to Reduce the Amount of Precious Metals in Catalytic Converters"},"content":{"rendered":"

The precious metals, such as platinum, palladium and rhodium, in catalytic converters make the vehicle devices attractive to thieves, but Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ researchers are working to reduce the amount of precious metals needed in them /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133476/u2014 down to single atoms /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133476/u2014 while still maximizing their effectiveness./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133476/n

Catalytic converters, which were widely introduced in American vehicles in the 1970s, use precious metals as catalysts to help scrub deadly and harmful chemicals from combustion engine exhaust. As the price of precious metals has continued to rise, so has the number of catalytic converter thefts./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133476/n

In recent studies appearing in Nature Communications and the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ researchers showed that they could, respectively, use atomic platinum to control pollutants and operate the system at lower temperatures, which is crucial to removing harmful chemicals when a vehicle first starts./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133476/n

Fine-tuning Platinum Atom Location/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133476/n

In the Nature Communications study, Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ research teams led by Fudong Liu, assistant professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering, and Talat Rahman, distinguished Pegasus Professor in the Department of Physics, successfully constructed platinum single atoms with different atomic coordination environments at specific locations on ceria. Ceria is a metal oxide that helps improve catalytic reaction performance./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133476/n

Liu and Rahman are also affiliated with the Catalysis Cluster for Renewable Energy and Chemical Transformations (REACT)./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133476/n

The platinum atoms exhibited strikingly distinct behaviors in catalytic reactions, such as carbon monoxide oxidation and ammonia oxidation in a diesel engine exhaust aftertreatment system, the researchers say./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133476/n

The oxidation converts deadly carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide, and harmful ammonia to nitrogen and water molecules./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133476/n

Their results suggest that the catalytic performance of single atom catalysts in targeted reactions can be maximized by optimizing their local coordination structures through simple and industrial-scalable strategies, Liu says./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133476/n