Breaking CO2 faster, cheaper, and more efficiently
A discovery by a team of researchers could make it more feasible to turn carbon dioxide into fuels. (Courtesy of Steve Suib)
A new catalyst breaks carbon dioxide into useful chemicals faster, cheaper, and more efficiently than the standard method, reports a team of researchers in this week’s issue of PNAS. The discovery could make it possible to economically turn carbon dioxide into fuels.
Carbon dioxide is a stable, abundant gas. In fact it’s a little too abundant, and the extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is changing the planet’s climate. Knowing this, many chemists are working on efficient ways to turn carbon dioxide into other useful products. But carbon dioxide’s stability makes this tough. It’s hard to get the molecule, happy on its own, to react with anything else.
The best existing technique to electrochemically break carbon dioxide into pieces that will chemically react uses a catalyst made of platinum. But platinum is a rare, expensive metal.
