Chemical processes that are more efficient and less expensive may be coming to industries ranging from battery manufacturing to detergent production thanks to an Oregon State University researcher’s work advancing metal oxides as catalysts.
The findings, by a collaboration that included scientists from the University of Delaware, were published in Nature Catalysis.
A catalyst increases the rate of a chemical reaction without being consumed by the reaction – thus it is able to perform the rate-increase function repeatedly. Catalysts are involved in the production of most chemicals significant in industry – plastics, dyes, explosives, fuels and more.
Catalysts have traditionally been based on precious metals such as platinum and palladium, explains Konstantinos Goulas, assistant professor of chemical engineering in the OSU College of Engineering and one of the authors of the study.
Read more at Oregon State University
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