© Illustration left: Science Photo Library/Ramon Andrade 3dciencia
New catalysts should enable environmentally friendly and inexpensive products, for example for use in medicine, agriculture or electric cars with fuel cells.
It started with a bang. The year was 1823. Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner mixed air and hydrogen and then brought the gas mixture into contact with a platinum sponge. With resounding effect: the gas exploded. The so-called oxyhydrogen reaction was one of the most important discoveries of the young catalysis chemistry and the basis for how lighters work.
In previous years, natural scientists had noticed chemical reactions that only took place when traces of another substance...
