Studies on how pollutants stick to or are broken apart by certain materials, now under way at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, could be a step in that direction.
Sulfur is a common impurity in fossil fuels.
Upon combustion, sulfur byproducts such as H2S can contribute to air pollution and acid rain. Furthermore, the catalysts typically used are made from expensive metals like platinum and rhodium. Their findings may help engineers build a better pollution trap. In accompanying thermodynamic studies, in which the catalyst is held at a constant temperature while the pressure of a pollutant gas above it increases, the scientists calculate the capacity of the catalyst to adsorb the pollutant. For example, the team has shown that when H2S adsorbs on MgO, two or three uniform layers form at distinct intervals as the pressure increases.