Monday, 2nd April 2007 (4106 views)

A new material has been developed by Japanese scientists which uses gold nanoparticles to remove pollutants from the air.

Researchers at the Tokyo Central R&D laboratories have combined the gold with highly porous magnesium oxide in order to remove volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from the air.

These VOCs ordinarily contribute to smog, high ozone levels and poor air quality which damages human health so air quality systems are becoming vital in cleaning the air.

The air cleaning system created by the scientists was proved effective in removing all sorts of organic air pollutants and it performed far better than more conventional systems which do not use gold nanoparticles.

Gold within the system is a platform for the oxygen in the air to dissociate and replace consumed oxygen atoms. Vacuum-UV laser abulation provides a special way of making the gold high in energy so it gels well with the manganese oxide and works as a quick catalyst for cleaning the air.

As clean air laws become stricter, the need for modern purification systems which are based on photo catalysts becomes all the greater and gold can play a worthwhile role in this.

 

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