Rice U. lab adds porous envelope to aluminum plasmonics: Scientists marry gas-trapping framework to light-powered nanocatalysts
When Rice University chemist and engineer Hossein Robatjazi set out to marry a molecular sieve called MOF to a plasmonic aluminum nanoparticle two years ago, he never imagined the key would be the same process nature uses to petrify wood.
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In a new paper online this week in the journal Science Advances, Robatjazi and co-authors with Rice's Laboratory for Nanophotonics (LANP) describe how pseudomorphic replacement, the same chemical process that turns a tree to stone, aided their synthesis of the first metal-organic framework (MOF) around light-powered aluminum nanocatalysts.
Catalysts are materials that speed up chemical reactions without reacting themselves, and they're used in the manufacture of most commercially produced chemicals. Because most industrial catalysts work best at high temperature or high pressure or both, they also come with an enormous energy burden. The combination of MOFs and plasmonic aluminum creates a new avenue for designing greener catalysts that use solar energy and are made from the most abundant metal in Earth's crust.
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