Nissan halves precious metals in new auto catalyst

New Materials Asia, Sept, 2007

Nissan Motor Co Ltd has developed a catalyst for petroleum-powered cars, which uses only half the precious metal components of conventional catalysts.

This new catalyst will be introduced in fiscal year 2008.

The technology, developed in conjunction with Renault, results in no changes in the performance of the catalyst despite the fact that it uses significantly fewer precious metals, Nissan said.

Exhaust-cleaning automotive catalysts comprise a mix of platinum, rhodium and palladium. Within the catalyst, the chemical reaction between the precious metals and exhaust gases converts the emissions into nontoxic compounds such as nitrogen, water and carbon dioxide.

In conventional catalysts, the high temperatures within the catalyst cause the precious metals to cluster, reducing the exposed metal surface area, leading to less effective cleaning of the gases.

Existing converters contain a higher amount of precious metals in order to maintain an efficient level of cleaning, by way of compensation.

However, Nissan says it has managed to keep the fine metal particles separated to prevent them from clustering under high temperature conditions using nanotechnology, enabling the catalyst to maintain performance while using only half the component of precious metals needed.

For further information, contact: Nissan Motor Co Ltd, 17-1 Ginza 6-chome, Chuoku, Tokyo 104-8023 Japan; tel: 81-3-3543-5523; Internet: www.nissan-global.com