Achievement

Precious metals such as Pt and Pd are used in catalytic converters for treatment of exhaust gases from gasoline and diesel engines. The supplies of precious metals are limited worldwide, but there is increasing demand for clean energy; hence, there is a need to develop more active and stable catalysts with minimal use of precious metals such as Pt. A serious problem facing catalysts is the loss of activity during use. The primary mechanism by which automotive catalysts lose activity is via a process known as Ostwald ripening. Tyne Johns has obtained some intriguing results that are somewhat different from what has been published in the literature. In the past year, She has had the opportunity to present a poster at the Gordon Research Conference for Catalysis. This led to an NSF GOALI proposal being submitted. Tyne has traveled to Brookhaven National Lab twice to acquire EXAFS data and once for an EXAFS workshop. Thanks to the IGERT fellowship, this has been a very productive year.