- Special Sections - Public Notices Cobalt, a relatively common
mineral, may hold promise as an industrial catalyst with
potential applications in such energy-related technologies as
the production of biofuels and the reduction of carbon dioxide.
That is, provided the cobalt is captured in a complex molecule
so it mimics the precious metals that normally serve this
industrial role. In work published Nov. 26 in the international
edition of the chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie, Los Alamos
National Laboratory scientists report the possibility of
replacing the normally used noble metal catalysts with cobalt.
Catalysts are the parallel of the Philosopher’s Stone for
chemistry. They cannot change lead to gold, but they do
transform one chemical substance into another while remaining
unchanged themselves. Perhaps the most familiar example of
catalysis comes from automobile exhaust systems that change
toxic fumes into more benign gases, but catalysts are also
integral to thousands of industrial, synthetic, and ren