Mazda Motor Corp. announced on October 1, 2007, that it has succeeded in developing a new automotive catalyst that significantly reduces the use of precious metals such as platinum and palladium. By using single-nanotechnology, the new catalyst maintains performance levels in purifying exhaust gases and achieves high durability under harsh conditions, even if the amounts of precious metals are reduced by 70 to 90 percent.

Precious metals used in automotive catalysts promote chemical reactions on their surfaces that purify exhaust gases. In conventional catalysts, the precious metals are adhered to a base material. When heated by exhaust fumes, the precious metal particles move across the base surface and become agglomerated into larger particles. This reduces effective surface area of precious metals as well as their catalytic activity. Thus, it is necessary to use a significant amount of precious metals to ensure efficient purification performance.

The newly developed catalyst uses precious metal particles of less than five nanometers in diameter in order to increase surface area. Single nanosized particles are then embedded in the base material in fixed positions. As a result, the agglomeration problem is solved, and precious metal consumption is substantially reduced.

http://www.mazda.com/publicity/release/2007/200710/071001b.html

Posted: 2008/02/03 04:22:57 PM
Japanese version

TAG Manufacturing industry , Technology , Transportation