Alkaline earth oxide nanoparticles as destructive absorbents for environmental toxins

Sr and Ca oxide nanoparticles are very reactive materials used to mitigate atmospheric pollution and to sequester polluting molecules. We have studied the structure of SrO nanoparticles, using Sr K-edge and Fe K-edge XAFS, that were prepared with various reactivities, with or without a Fe203 coating, and before and after reaction with CC14 or SO2. For CCI4, the polluting fraction of the reagent is totally absorbed in the bulk particle. For SO2, the results show a total reaction for the Aerogel Preparation (AP) compound. For the coated particles before reaction, the iron oxide has a very disordered structure, and it is mixed with small metallic iron clusters for Conventional Preparation (CP) compounds.