Catalytic converters like it hot

Vienna University of Technology has successfully clarified what it is the required operating temperatures of catalytic converters in cars depend on. Catalytic converters work poorly if they have not yet warmed up. Tiny metal particles in a catalytic converter require a minimum temperature to function efficiently. At the Vienna University of Technology, thanks to a new measuring method, it has now become possible to examine many different types of these particles at the same time. Reliable information regarding what it is exactly that the efficiency of catalytic converters depends on has thus been obtained for the first time. Low ignition temperature desired - "A large part of the pollutant emissions from an engine are generated immediately after start-up, while the catalytic converter is still cold", explains Prof. Günther Rupprechter from the Institute of Materials Chemistry at Vienna University of Technology. "Only when a certain temperature is exceeded does what is known as catalytic ignition occur and the catalytic converter functions with high efficiency." Complex and expensive catalytic converter heating systems have already been developed in order to reach this critical temperature as quickly as possible.