Here's a nanomaterial that could cut down car exhaust pollution

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New Delhi: An international team of researchers has designed a nanomaterial that can be used to make "markedly more effective" catalytic converters for vehicles that could reduce car exhaust pollution.

Researchers at the University of Wollongong (UOW), in Australia, working with colleagues in Japan, Turkey, Bangladesh and at the Australian Nuclear Science Technology Organisation (ANSTO) have created a material that improves catalytic converter efficiency by "three to four times".

Catalytic converters reduce the pollution from vehicle exhaust by converting toxic gases and pollutants to less toxic pollutants.

Among the pollutants, sulphur oxides and nitrogen oxides (NOX), badly impact photosynthesis of plants, damage immune system and generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the cells of affected organisms.

In a paper published in Nature Communications, the research team described how they created porous rhodium on a nanoscale.

Rhodium is a chemical element commonly used in catalytic converters to reduce nitrogen oxides in exhaust gases.

Making it porous increases its surface area, thereby making it more effective.

Lead author of the paper, Professor Yusuke Yamauchi from the Australian Institute for Innovative Materials (AIIM) at UOW said the porous rhodium nanoparticles could make a dramatic improvement to air pollution in cities around the world.

(With Agency inputs)