Gold Innovations Blog

The explosion of a lorry on the M25, London’s orbital motorway, in 2005 highlighted the danger of transporting hydrogen peroxide, one of the most widely used chemicals in modern industry. The discovery by scientists at Cardiff University in Wales that gold palladium nanoparticles can synthesise hydrogen peroxide directly may revolutionise it’s safe production.

Scientists led by Prof Graham Hutchings, of Cardiff University, UK, have devised a method for making hydrogen peroxide directly from hydrogen and oxygen.  This project was funded from EU AURICAT and World Gold Council’s GROW funding, and they have developed a simple, clean method for producing hydrogen peroxide, which is widely used as an antiseptic and disinfectant. The results could lead to the on-site production of hydrogen peroxide in smaller quantities and at weaker concentrations, thereby avoiding the risks associated with the transport and storage of large amounts of highly concentrated hydrogen peroxide.

The work was published in the journal Science on 20 February 2009 and indicates that pretreatment of the carbon support for the gold-palladium catalyst with nitric or acetic acid produces an active and durable catalyst which gives high yields of hydrogen peroxide and ‘switches off’ the subsequent decomposition reaction to water.

Producing this important substance currently entails an energy-intensive process, and the economics of this process mean it is made in larger quantities and at stronger concentrations than are needed in most applications. As a result, large amounts of the chemical must be stored and transported; this can be hazardous, as the  explosion of a lorry carrying hydrogen peroxide on a UK motorway showed.

This new process could allow users of hydrogen peroxide on-site in the quantities they require.