Lung, surface chemistry

It is only the ability of modern chemistry to detect very small quantities of materials that made the following discovery possible. In some recent research it was reported that one subtle way in which cancer tumours cells differ from normal cells is how they metabolize carbohydrates present on their surfaces. Cancer cells have far more of the carbohydrate sialic acid, which can be detected with MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) analytical techniques. It was found that the sialic acid normally appears on the surface of the cells only in foetal development, but it appears abnormally in patients with gastric, colon, pancreatic, liver, lung, prostate and breast cancers, as well as in leukaemia. Research is continuing.1... 

Heterogeneous catalysis has a role in the atmospheric chemistry of ozone in the troposphere as well. Catalytic converters in automobiles are filled with a porous ceramic material, which provides a surface that catalyzes the removal of CO and NO (nitrogen oxides) ftom the exhaust. (Nitrogen oxides initiate the formation of ozone and other lung irritants in photochemical smog. We will examine this process in detail in Section 11.8.) The process by which catalytic converters operate is shown in Figure 11.14. The types of steps shown there are found in most examples of heterogeneous catalysis. 

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