Pollutants coming out of cars’ exhausts are harmful to the environment and public health. With the goal of overall curbing car emissions, the US Department of Energy (DOE) issued a challenge to scientists worldwide: catalytically converting 90 percent of all critical pollutants (hydrocarbons, CO2, NOx etc.) in car exhaust into less harmful substances at 150ºC. However, nanoparticle based heterogeneous catalysts—like the three-way exhaust catalyst used in cars—work best at high temperatures (between 200 and 400ºC), thus making the 150ºC DOE challenge seem difficult to attain.
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Source: Phys.org