Catalysts are very common in biology, so I know something about them. You do too, even if you don't realize it. Think about what happens when you pour hydrogen peroxide on a cut. It bubbles. Right? Why does it bubble?
Hydrogen peroxide has two hydrogen and two oxygen atoms in it (H2O2) and you have a catalyst called catalase in your body that helps free some of the oxygen, turning the peroxide into water and oxygen. A catalyst greatly decreases the energy and time required for a reaction to take place. In this case it's very dramatic. That hydrogen peroxide might turn into water and oxygen on its own... if left alone for a few decades... but add a little catalase and it happens in seconds. In your body catalysts are mostly proteins that "hold" onto the chemicals and apply pressure in just the way that encourages the chemicals to react in a specific way.
In the case of the aluminum (which is not a protein, but you knew that) it needs to be arranged in a cluster of atoms so that one of them has a tendency to accept electrons and another to donate electrons. This lets the water bind to the cluster and frees some hydrogen. Without the aluminum the reaction requires the addition of energy (heat or electricity) but with the aluminum clusters, the reaction can happen at room temperature. Now, if they can just figure out how to unbind the remaining oxygen and the extra hydrogen atom from the aluminum, they will be able to reuse the aluminum clusters over and over again.
Links:
Read all about it here.
Some facts about hydrogen as a fuel, from Stanford.
Phrase of The Day
Lewis Acid: A compound that can accept a pair of electrons. A Lewis Base can donate a pair of electrons. This is a slightly different than the definition of an acid as a chemical that has a pH less than 7.
2 comments:
Not to be confused with "Lewis and Clark Acids," which were last seen on the West Coast somewhere.
It would be neat if we had cars that ran on water. Ironically, it would probably cause water shortages. There are already countries where fresh water is scarce. (Unless the cars could run on salt water or polluted water, somehow de-polluting it and changing it into fresh breathable air...??)
Imagine... instead of pulling into a Shell station or a Marathon station, we'd go to the Dasani station or the Aquafina station. :)
Very cool and interesting about the aluminum.
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