A catalyst has a seemingly magical quality: It can speed up the pace of a chemical reaction, perform that feat thousands of times, and never get used up. That’s why some ENSI scientists are striving to find ways to use catalysts to manage energy.
First, though, they must understand how catalysts perform their tricks, and what gives them their special abilities. It isn’t magic after all; it relates to the size and shape of the catalyst, and the tiny movements its atoms make at the nanoscale.