Asian Scientist (Jul. 1, 2013) – A newly developed iron nanoparticle catalyst promises to drastically improve the efficiency of hydrogenation, a key chemical process used in many industrial applications.
Hydrogenation described the reaction of molecular hydrogen with another compound or element. It is one of the world’s most highly studied chemical reactions as it has industrial applications ranging from petrochemistry, to food production, to pharmaceuticals.
Most such applications of hydrogenation use rare metal catalysts such as palladium or platinum to speed up chemical reactions. While highly efficient, these metals are expensive and limited in supply, posing environmental and economic challenges.
To develop a cleaner, safer and cheaper catalyst, researchers in Japan and Canada used iron, a much less expensive and far more abundant element. Iron was ruled out in the past because it rusts in the presence of oxygen and water, negating its catalytic effect.
The new technique, described in a paper published in Green Chemistry, produces iron nanoparticles directly inside a polymer matrix. This protects the iron surface from rusting while allowing the reactants to reach it and react.
“Our aim is to develop iron-based catalysts not only for hydrogenation but also a variety of organic transformations that can be used in future industrial applications,” said Dr. Yoichi Yamada, one of the authors of the paper.
“If rare metal-based catalysts can be replaced by iron-based ones, then we can overcome our costly dependency on rare metals.”
The article can be found at: Hudson et al. (2013) Highly Efficient Iron(0) Nanoparticle-Catalyzed Hydrogenation In Water In Flow.
——
Source: RIKEN.
Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff.
