Technology
With the
expansion of car production in developing countries, precious metals used for
catalyst are supposed to be in short supply in the future. It a serious issue
for every automaker to reduce the production cost of environment-responsive
cars. Daihatsu Motor developed a catalyst technology that does not need rhodium
jointly with Osaka University. An emission purification catalyst needs platinum
and palladium in addition to rhodium. A material that can replace rhodium has
never been found. The road to realize a catalyst totally free from precious
metals has been opened, the research group told.
The
company built a trial product using the molecular architecture figured out theoretically
by Osaka University Professor Hideaki Kasai. The new catalyst uses an oxidative
product of copper in place of rhodium. In the experiment, it confirmed that the
new catalyst exhibited the same degree of emission purification ability as the
existing rhodium-containing catalyst. It filed an application for patent. The
research group will improve the durability of the new product to put it into
practical use. The cost of precious metals is supposed to be several tens of
thousand yen per car. The competition to reduce the cost associated with rare
and precious metals is growing harder worldwide.
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