Two Is Better Than One: Scientists fit two co-catalysts on a nano-sheet for better water purification

Date posted
Funding Agency
(Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation)

A collaboration of scientists from the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II)—a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory—Yale University, and Arizona State University has designed and tested a new two-dimensional catalyst that can be used to improve water purification using hydrogen peroxide. So far, scientists have struggled to improve the efficiency of the process through catalysis because each part of the reaction needs its own catalyst—called a co-catalyst—and the co-catalysts can’t be next to each other. The team presented the design for the new two-dimensional catalyst, in which two co-catalysts are in two different locations on a thin nanosheet. One of the co-catalysts—a single cobalt atom—sits in the center of the sheet, whereas the other one, a molecule called anthraquinone, is placed around the edges.