A professor at a US college has devised a method of using a palladium and gold-based detergent to clean polluted groundwater.

Chemical Engineering Professor at Rice University Michael Wong claims his method cleans water of carcinogen trichloroethene (TCE) far more efficiently that existing methods of pumping the water out of the ground and then treating it with a carbon filter.

The conventional carbon filter approach simply leaves behind TCE on filters, which then has to be either stored or burned, he claims.
Professor Wong's approach involves creating nanoparticles of gold, which are then dusted with palladium.

When applied to contaminated water, the nanoparticles act as a catalyst, reacting with the TCE and breaking it down into what Professor Wong describes as "happy byproducts" such as ethane and chloride salts - a process which he admits he does not yet fully understand.

He told Smithsonian magazine: "We didn't believe it at first, because the gold-palladium nanoparticles were just so much more efficient- like, a hundred times more efficient. You see, gold itself doesn't do anything to TCE."

Professor Wong is now looking to further his research through constructing a real-sized reactor to see how the nanoparticle-based detergent performs at a polluted site.

Also see: http://www.platinum.matthey.com/media_room/1109268002.html

Source:

Midas Touch, 08/10/07
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/10034946.html

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