Sculpted Light Controls Chemical Catalysts

Material scientists at Stanford University have developed a method to exert control over catalysts using light and advanced fabrication and characterization techniques. The work could be an early step toward more efficient catalysts, new forms of catalytic transformations, and, potentially, catalysts capable of sustaining more than one reaction at the same time. A proof-of-concept experiment used rods of palladium approximately 1/200th the width of a human hair as catalysts, placed above gold nanobars that focused and “sculpted” the light around the catalyst. That sculpted light changed the regions on the nanorods where chemical reactions releasing hydrogen occurred. Palladium nanorods lie atop gold nanobars. An...