

Nature Communications publishes break-through scientific evidence: Nano-design can reduce air pollution


In the latest edition of the Nature Communications journal, Topsoe’s Stig Helveg shares scientific evidence that nano-designed titanium crystals can improve catalysts that reduce air pollution. The optimized titanium oxide crystals boost the reactivity of vanadium oxide in their vicinity. This discovery was made by Topsoe in collaboration with the SuperSTEM facility in Daresbury, UK

This research is important, because vanadium SCR catalysts remove nitrogen oxides (NOx) from engine exhaust gases, power plants, and industrial emissions. If NOx is allowed into the atmosphere, it forms smog, acid rain, and a wide variety of other toxic products.

Future vanadium catalysts based on nano-designed titanium crystals will most probably be significantly better at reducing these health hazards.  People in mega-cities around the world will be able to breathe much cleaner air and live healthier lives. And companies will be able to live up to increasingly strict environmental regulations.

Stig Helveg is a Fellow at Topsoe’s Atomic-Scale Analysis Department, where he and his colleagues work at the atomic scale to improve catalysts to the benefit of companies, societies and people around the world. Their world-leading surface science research is aided by one of the world’s most powerful electron microscopes that allow them to follow catalytic processes at the atomic level.

Solutions from Topsoe touch upon some of the most pressing challenges of our time. How to reduce pollution is one of them. Our catalysts and technology also contribute to ensuring sufficient supply of food and energy.

Watch Fellow Stig Helveg explain how he uses advanced electron microscopy to develop better catalysts:

Read the article in Nature Communications here.