More Catalysis with Less Platinum

Platinum’s stability at high temperatures and its ability to selectively catalyze molecules make it a popular metal in industrial applications, such as catalytic converters, fuel cells, and batteries. However, given the scarcity and cost of platinum (Pt), researchers have attempted to use less of it by creating Pt alloys with cheaper catalytically active elements such as rhodium or palladium. These alloys unfortunately can degrade at high temperatures, limiting their industrial use. Now, Henning Galinski and colleagues at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich have isolated a ternary alloy of Pt that requires 15% less of the metal than conventional Pt electrodes and is stable at temperatures up to 600 °C, making this new alloy a promising candidate for use in catalytic converters.