It may be possible to transform carbon dioxide into green fuel by shining sunlight onto copper atoms says new research.
Carbon dioxide is the greatest contributor to global warming, but if a little sunshine exposed to CO2 and water can produce a fuel and chemical precursor the world’s energy “problems” would be solved the researchers said.
While it’s possible to convert CO2 to useful products, traditional thermal methods rely on hydrogen sourced from fossil fuels. New ways using photo- and electrocatalysis that take advantage of solar energy are urgently needed.
Known as photocatalysis, the research deposited single atoms of copper on a light-activated material made up of nanocrystalline carbon nitride. Sunlightshone on the semiconductor material excites electrons, enabling them to travel through the material to react with CO2 and water, leading to a variety of useful products, including methanol, which is a green fuel.
Using recycled CO2 and water over and over again endlessly using sunshine to power the process would end the global warming issue, the contests for production, economic power, resource control and wild variations in price.
The breakthrough science comes from an international team of researchers from the University of Nottingham, University of Birmingham, University of Queensland and University of Ulm.
The research has been published in the Sustainable Energy & Fuels Journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
