Chemists’ surprising discovery of nanoconfined reactions could aid catalytic design

Chemistry researchers at Georgia State University have established a new imaging strategy that can track single molecules as they shimmy through tiny pores in the shells of silica spheres and that can monitor the chemical reaction dynamics on catalytic centers at the core. This discovery has led to the first quantitative measurements of how confinement at the nanoscale speeds up catalytic reactions. Understanding this surprising "nanoconfinement effect" could help guide the precise design of more efficient industrial catalysts that can conserve energy.