A research team directed by Robert Morris from the University of Toronto has developed eco-friendly iron-based nanoparticle catalysts with efficiency comparable to that of toxic, high-cost metal-based catalysts currently being used in a wide range of industries such as food, fragrance and drug.
Jessica Sonnenberg, one of the researchers, informed that besides being less toxic, iron catalysts are more cost efficient. The study findings have been reported in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
The team started the multi-step research with the detection of the iron catalysts as it suspected the presence of nanoparticles. The team then used an electron microscope to verify whether the formation of the iron nanoparticles occurred during the catalysis. It then investigated to confirm whether these iron nanoparticles were catalytically active through polymer and poisoning experiments. The test results confirmed that the iron atoms on the nanoparticle’s surface were the only catalytically active agents.
Sonnenberg explained that there is a major problem, which needs to be solved for these iron-based catalysts as they demand a 1:1 ratio of highly expensive organic ligands to produce the catalytic activity. Organic ligands are molecules that attach to a chemical compound’s central metal atom. However, the synthesis of functional surface nanoparticles by the team paves the way to use these costly compounds at much smaller ratios with respect to the metal centers, which in turn substantially decrease the overall cost of the processes.
Source: http://www.utoronto.ca/