Researchers in the US have developed a new technique that allows them to grow metal crystals, including platinum group metals (pgms), from cotton.

Scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have managed to grow new configurations of metal crystals including platinum and palladium by appropriating cellulose fibres from cotton and then crystallising them.

It is thought that the new technology could have potential uses in a wide variety of applications, including drug delivery and catalytic converters.

The acid-treated cellulose fibres from the cotton are used as a natural template from which the metal nanocrystals have been grown quickly, to a uniform size.

According to the researchers, the nanocrystals display catalytic, electrical and optical properties that are not present in larger scale or odd-sized crystals.

Picture caption

PRECIOUS METAL CRYSTALS - Left, an electron micrograph (TEM) of a metal, in this case platinum, deposited on cellulose. Inset, crystalline cellulose without metal. Right, TEM showing the pattern of platinum clustering along hydroxyl sites on the cellulose surface. (Credit: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.)

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