Incorporation of noble metals into aerogels

Abstract

Aerogels or xerogels containing atomically dispersed noble metals for applications such environmental remediation. New noble metal precursors, such as Pt--Si or Pd(Si--P).sub.2, have been created to bridge the incompatibility between noble metals and oxygen, followed by their incorporation into the aerogel or xerogel through sol-gel chemistry and processing. Applications include oxidation of hydrocarbons and reduction of nitrogen oxide species, complete oxidation of volatile organic carbon species, oxidative membranes for photocatalysis and partial oxidation for synthetic applications.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.