A SKKU research team led by Professor Kim Young-Dok from the chemistry department has developed an oxidized steel Nano catalyst which uses metal oxidized steel particles which are the size of 1 nanometer to turn carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide at a temperature of 30 degrees. Before this new catalyst was developed, waste gas from automobiles or factories used precious metals such as platinum, to turn carbon monoxide into less harmful materials. Pre-existing catalysts, however, were expensive and vitalized only at temperatures over 150 degrees. Now that the preexisting catalyst has been vitalized, there are some possibilities of carbon monoxide getting released into the air. Carbon monoxide is contained in gases from burning coal and waste gas, also found in cigarette smoke. If it goes into the lungs, it can be combined with hemoglobin in the bloodstream, and can eventually lead to a blocking of the oxygen supply. The research team has found that oxidized steel has shown high catalyst vitalization, and its structure is stable enough to be activated at high temperatures. Using oxidized steel can not only dispose of the carbon monoxide found in automobile waste gas, but can also be applied to turning benzene into a harmless material, which is an induction substance of sick-house syndrome, to carbon dioxide. This research result is significant for temperature control chemical vapor deposition which is a new Nano catalyst incorporation in the chemistry field. The new incorporation is simple enough to enable mass production, and commercialization is also easy because it uses low cost materials, compared to the pre-existing catalyst. The research was published in Scientific Report on February 7.