Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Stony Brook University; Chungnam National University in Daejeon, South Korea; and Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation in Yokohama, Japan, have uncovered new details of the reversible assembly and disassembly of a platinum catalyst. The researchers revealed how single platinum atoms on a cerium oxide support aggregate under reaction conditions to form active catalytic nanoparticles and then, surprisingly, disaggregate once the reaction is stopped. "Part of the definition of a catalyst is that it helps disassemble and reassemble reacting molecules to form new products," said Anatoly Frenkel, one of the scientists involved in this study. "But it was shocking to see a catalyst that also assembles and disassembles itself in the process."
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