SNU Researchers Develop Nanomace Catalyst, Delivering Up to 14x Better Emission Breakdown

Seoul National University engineers have unveiled “nanomace,” a ceria-based nanostructured catalyst designed to break down greenhouse gases far more efficiently than today’s commercial materials. Led by Prof. Jeong Woo Han, the team reports up to 14.4× higher decomposition performance, positioning the approach as a promising path toward cleaner emissions treatment and carbon-neutral energy systems.

The catalyst’s novelty lies in how two different ceria morphologies are chemically joined: cubic nanocubes and rod-shaped nanorods. Rather than treating them as separate additives, the researchers engineered a single hybrid architecture where the boundary between the cube and rod becomes an active reaction hotspot.

Ceria (CeO₂) is valued for its oxygen-storage capability, enabling oxygen to be temporarily released and replenished during catalytic cycles. In this work, the team focuses on lattice oxygen—the oxygen incorporated in ceria’s crystal lattice that directly participates in redox reactions—particularly through the Mars–van Krevelen (MvK) mechanism, where lattice oxygen is consumed and then restored from the surrounding environment.

Why does the interface matter? The researchers show that chemical bonding between nanocubes and nanorods disrupts the interface’s regular atomic arrangement, making lattice oxygen easier to activate and releasing it more readily than in uniform single-morphology ceria. In contrast, merely mixing nanocubes and nanorods fails to recreate the same catalytic gains, underscoring that interface engineering—not composition alone—drives performance.

Notably, the reactive interface occupies only a fraction of the total surface area, yet it accounts for roughly one-third of the overall catalytic activity. This “hidden workhorse” effect allows the nanomace catalyst to initiate reactions at lower temperatures, including performance beyond that of nanorods alone.

To probe the process at the atomic level, the team combined AI-driven graph neural network simulations with large-scale surface modeling and molecular dynamics. The simulations indicate that oxygen vacancies form most easily at the interface—creating the conditions for faster oxygen participation and improved reaction kinetics. Molecular dynamics further supported the reaction pathway by tracking how carbon monoxide interacts with interface lattice oxygen.

The nanomace structure also proved versatile across multiple reaction types. With small quantities of precious-metal supports such as Au, Pd, and Rh, the catalyst delivered large boosts in performance relative to commercial benchmarks. Gold-supported nanomace enabled hydrogen production via the water–gas shift reaction, while Pd- and Rh-supported variants drove methane and nitrous oxide decomposition, respectively.

For practical relevance, gold-supported nanomace removed carbon monoxide at extremely low temperatures (down to –70°C) and maintained stable operation for over 150 hours. The authors argue that reducing precious-metal usage while achieving high activity improves both environmental impact and economic feasibility.

The study appears in Nature Communications and was featured in the journal’s “Editors’ Highlight: Catalysis Focus.” The researchers propose a general design principle—precisely engineered catalyst interfaces—to maximize lattice-oxygen activity across oxidation–reduction technologies.