Hydrogen peroxide holds potential

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Hydrogen peroxide, a common chemical found in almost every medicine cabinet, could soon be used to clean gasoline, purify water, destroy pesticides and toxins and stop a biological attack, researchers say, with the help of a chemical that supercharges its natural cleaning and disinfecting power.
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh say they have developed a synthetic chemical -- a constellation of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen around an iron atom -- that can turn one hydrogen peroxide into the ultimate "green" cleaner. Scientists unveiled their research of the chemical, Fe-TAML, or iron tetraamido macrocyclic ligand, at the American Chemical Society's national meeting Wednesday.
Paul Anastas, a staff member of the White House Office of Science and Technology Research said the catalyst could boost efforts to create cleaning chemicals that are more environmentally friendly.
"There are wrong ways to do things, and this is one of the right ways," Anastas said. Researchers have long sought cleaning chemicals that are not only safe to use but also don't result in even nastier byproducts. Hydrogen peroxide could hold the key. It is natural (formed by sunlight hitting water), is effective on organic (microbes, for example) and inorganic compounds and doesn't produce harmful gases or byproducts (like chemicals containing chlorine can).
Terry Collins, head of Carnegie Mellon's Institute for Green Oxidation Chemistry and leader of the research, said preliminary studies show the catalyst combined with hydrogen peroxide could be used to bleach paper, remove dyes from waterways, break down pesticides, remove sulfur from diesel fuel and kill anthrax spores.
The catalyst works by breaking hydrogen peroxide into water and an oxygen atom which is free to react and destroy other molecules, rendering them harmless or less toxic.
As hardy as anthrax
In a laboratory test, the catalyst boosted hydrogen peroxide's disinfecting power enough to kill spores of bacillus athrophaerus, a nonfatal relative of anthrax but also as hardy, said Deboshri Banerjee, a graduate student working with Collins.
The predominant chemical used to kill anthrax is chlorine oxide, which is as toxic as the bacteria and can often linger long after the anthrax is dead.
"What makes this interesting is it's lethal to the anthrax, but it's not going to hurt us or the environment," said Katharine Covert, program director for the National Science Foundation's chemistry division.
Collins and other researchers have patented six of the catalysts, and Carnegie Mellon is negotiating licenses with several companies, including some looking at them for laundry bleach.