Platinum Nanocatalyst Could Aid Drugmakers

Main Category: Biology / Biochemistry
Also Included In: Pharma Industry / Biotech Industry
Article Date: 01 Sep 2009 - 5:00 PDT

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Nanoparticles combining platinum and gold act as superefficient catalysts, but chemists have struggled to create them in an industrially useful form. Rice University chemists have answered the call this week with a polymer-coated version of gold-platinum nanorods, the first catalysts of their kind that can be used in the organic solvents favored by chemical and drug manufacturers.

The research is available online in the Sept. 1 issue of the German scientific journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

Catalysts are compounds that speed up or slow down chemical reactions without being consumed by them. An everyday example would be the catalytic converters that help breakdown toxic components of automotive exhaust. The chemical and drug industries spend billions of dollars each year for catalysts that are needed to process drugs and other high-value chemicals.

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