A team of Chinese scientists has discovered a new process that can convert carbon dioxide (CO2) into liquid fuel, as published today in the journal "Nature".
EFE
This process involves a "clean" strategy to replace many of the chemicals based on fossil fuels that they supply to the industry, while CO2 emissions prey and mitigate its adverse effects on the environment, the article said.
Transforming the carbon dioxide take place by the intervention of electricity and a catalyst which increases the reaction rate of a chemically, in a procedure known as electroreduction.
The researchers found that certain provisions of atoms of cobalt and cobalt oxide give the new electrocatalyst higher catalytic activity, allowing the conversion of CO2 into liquid fuel.
The author of the work, Sun Yongfu, and his colleagues at the University of Science and Technology of China created four atoms thick pure or mixed cobalt and cobalt oxide layers (Co3O4) to be used as catalysts.
With this experiment, they found that the cobalt becomes active when placed in the layout and in the appropriate oxidation state.
The layer structure of atoms and the presence of metal oxide increased reaction rate which was higher than reported previously with metal catalysts or metal oxide.
With this study, the research team suggests new opportunities for manipulation and enhancement of the properties of CO2 electroreduction of metal.
However, converting CO2 into higher value chemicals remains a challenge in this process because it requires enormous amounts of energy, the scientists write.