Atomic defect lines suppress deactivation of iron oxide catalysts

Replacing precious metal catalysts with those based on more abundant metals such as iron would significantly decrease their cost. But iron catalysts, while highly efficient, tend to quickly deactivate. Creating structures with iron that are active enough to promote the reaction without becoming deactivated could open the door to using these catalysts in practical applications. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory found a structure that might be able to do just that. They prepared a thin layer of iron oxide nanoparticles on top of a gold surface and discovered that dislocation lines appearing on the iron oxide surface are very active and are not deactivated.