Iron chemistry yields surprisingly effective catalyst

Current methods to prepare metal-oxide catalysts, the workhorses of chemical transformations, require high temperatures and pressures. Now, chemists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have described a new technique that produces iron-oxide-coated metal nanoparticles supported on solid iron oxide, in one step, at near room temperature. These materials display high activity for conversion of carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide, one of the components of an important fuel and chemical source called syngas.