Fine-tuning cobalt for cleaner chemical transformations
Finding alternatives to precious metals in chemical manufacturing may be less like sourcing a substitute and more like tuning an instrument already in hand.
Scientists from Yokohama National University have discovered that tuning the balance of metallic cobalt and cobalt oxide in a catalyst can significantly improve the selectivity of hydrogenation reactions involving nitrogen-containing compounds. This finding could lead to more sustainable chemical manufacturing processes that do not rely on precious metals like platinum-group elements.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, demonstrates that cobalt, an abundant and economical metal, can be optimized to act as an effective catalyst for electrocatalytic hydrogenation, a process that could potentially replace scarce platinum-group metals with earth-abundant materials.
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