Profile

In my work I design new catalysts which can stop dangerous gases from being released into the atmosphere. Gases released from diesel engines in cars, vans and lorries can be bad for human health and make climate change worse, so it is important to stop these gases being released or to change them into safer gases. To do this, a catalyst is needed which uses a mixture of precious metals like platinum. It’s my job to make the catalysts work as well as possible to meet the requirements from the car makers and improve the air we breathe.

Making our catalysts has many stages, and these can be spread across multiple days or weeks. It begins with a new idea for how to make our catalysts better – this might include how to make them perform more efficiently, how to make them cheaper or how to make them more easily, or something different! We start by making a washcoat, which is the chemical “paint” containing the ingredients needed to make our catalysts work. We then take the washcoat and apply it to the uncoated catalyst brick. We test our catalysts in many different ways, sometimes in an actual engine or vehicle. Other times, we take a small piece of the catalyst and test it under many different conditions. We then analyse the data we collect and compare it across different catalysts to find the best design.