Wouldn’t it be convenient if you could reverse the rusting of your car by shining a bright light on it? It turns out that this concept works for undoing oxidation on copper nanoparticles, and it could lead to an environmentally friendly production process for an important industrial chemical, University of Michigan engineers have discovered.

“We report a new physical phenomenon that has potentially significant practical implications,” says Suljo Linic, an associate professor of chemical engineering, who led the study, which was published in the March 29, 2013, issue of Science.

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