Scientists looking to convert carbon dioxide into clean fuels and useful chemicals often make hydrogen gas and carbonates as unwanted byproducts.
Scientists looking to convert carbon dioxide into clean fuels and useful chemicals often make hydrogen gas and carbonates as unwanted byproducts. A new paper from the UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering has found a cleaner path.
Carbon dioxide is the greenhouse gas, singlehandedly responsible for 78% of the change in energy balance in Earth's atmosphere between 1990 and 2022.
A byproduct of burning fossil fuels, carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere from car exhaust and coal-fired power plants. Even some renewable energy resources produce a small amount of carbon dioxide, although at a tiny fraction of the amount coal and natural gas create.
At its core, this molecule is just an arrangement of one carbon and two oxygen atoms that can be reorganized through a process called electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction (CO2R) into clean fuels and useful chemicals. But the process is often done at a loss, with competing processes pulling the atoms in unwanted directions that create unwanted byproducts.
Read more at University of Chicago
Image: In a new paper published in Nature Catalysis, a research team from the UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering’s Amanchukwu Lab outlined a way to manipulate water molecules to make carbon dioxide reduction more efficient, with the ultimate goal of creating a clean energy loop. From left, PhD candidates Hannah Fejzić and Reggie Gomes and postdoctoral scholars Ritesh Kumar and Bidushi Sarkar. (Photo provided by Reggie Gomes)
