Fluorocarbon bonds are no match for light-powered nanocatalyst

Date posted
Funding Agency
(Funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the U.S. Department of Defense)

Researchers from Rice University, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Princeton University have created a light-powered catalytic nanoparticle that can break the strong chemical bonds in fluorocarbons, a group of synthetic materials that includes persistent environmental pollutants. The nanoparticles, which are tiny spheres of aluminum dotted with specks of palladium, break carbon-fluorine bonds via a catalytic process in which a fluorine atom is replaced by an atom of hydrogen.