Nick, In the case of Arata, the zirconium is not thought to be active for anything except as a "support" and in its role as zirconia (oxidized to a dielectric). That is the insight of Lawandy.
Arata's team merely found that when an alloy of zirconium and nickel and palladium (65/30/5) was heated in air for a few days, the nickel/pd forms nano-islands of a 5-10 nm size embedded uniformly in the ceramic, which small dimension is difficult to achieve any other way. This technique could have actually been discovered by another group, in a different context. Can you elaborate on 'tile burn'? I'm not sure that the Cincinnati group was ever able to put together anything reliable for remediation, but if they did, the nano-geometry would probably have been inadvertent. Many common catalytic processes have used "nano" inadvertently for a long time without ever mentioning it. Raney nickel is 85 years old. Jones -----Original Message----- From: Nick Palmer Jones wrote: "Arata, et al inventing an ingenious way of getting the correct size powder with ceramic binder via oxidation of zirconium based alloys." Hmm. Wasn't it the Cincinnati group, from way back when, who used zirconium to achieve anomalous effects, like the "tile burn" experiment that Chris Tinsley replicated? Nick Palmer On the side of the Planet - and the people - because they're worth it Blogspot - Sustainability and stuff according to Nick Palmer http://nickpalmer.blogspot.com
