This nanoparticle can be a potential air cleaner

With air pollution increasing at an alarming rate, people across the world are making concisions efforts to control it. One such effort has been made by an interdisciplinary international team consisting of researchers from IIT Gandhinagar, IIT Kanpur and University of Campinas UNICAMP, Brazil. The researchers have made a composite materials made of nanoparticles of alloys (platinum and palladium) with graphene.

The nanoparticle can selectively convert poisonous Carbon Monoxide gas into Carbon Dioxide. It is in the powder form and can be further used by various industries in different forms to clean the air. The catalytic behaviour of the nanocomposite was studied using different morphologies for the oxidation of Carbon Monoxide. The conversion rate varied along with the flow rate of Carbon Monoxide as well as temperature, showing full conversion at temperatures ranging from 75° to 125°.

Chandra Sekhar Tiwary, a member of the research team at IIT Gandhinagar, says, “Since discovery of atomically thin graphite (graphene), several applications are explored recently, starting from electronics devices, sensors, biomedical and many more.” The team revealed other exciting chemical properties of graphene composite in air cleaning. Graphene is used as a base and decorated it with alloy nanoparticles of platinum and palladium that converts toxic Carbon Monoxide to less toxic Carbon Dioxide.

Tiwary adds, “The current work is an initial scientific research and in future, it can be scaled up for regular air purification.  We are trying to build 3D porous architecture using such hybrid for practical applications.”

Sudhanshu Sharma of IIT Gandhinagar says, “While Platinum and Palladium alone are active catalysts, alloying them with graphene does wonder. The hybrid shows high adsorption and reaction due to the synergism among the three.”

Krishanu Biswas from IIT Kanpur adds, “Our effort is initial step in cleaning air in cities. The new material could potentially find use in chemical industries as well as environmental cleaning.”