Today@Dal

From Wednesday's Chronicle Herald:

Science is neat.

Carbon monoxide, meanwhile, is rather unpleasant.

It steals the oxygen from your blood one atom at a time.

So what could be neater than using science to convert carbon monoxide to its rather more benign cousin, carbon dioxide?

How about using a giant X-ray to peer into the molecular structure of an alloy that can catalyze this chemical reaction more cheaply than existing technologies?

“It is exciting,” said Peng Zhang, an associate professor of chemistry at Dalhousie University.

On Tuesday, Zhang was patiently explaining to a reporter who only has his Grade 10 chemistry why his research is important to anyone who drives a car.

Basically, it goes like this: every car has a thingy called a catalytic converter attached to its exhaust system.

The catalytic converter turns toxic emissions like carbon monoxide into less dangerous pollutants like carbon dioxide by using platinum to encourage a chemical reaction.

But platinum is very expensive.

“By using this alloy, we not only lower the cost but also improve the efficiency and increase its lifetime,” said Zhang.

Read the rest of this article online.