AsianScientist (Aug. 27, 2018) – A research team at the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST) in South Korea has developed photocatalysts that can convert carbon dioxide into usable energy such as methane or ethane. Their findings are published in Energy & Environmental Science.
As carbon dioxide emissions increase, the Earth’s temperature rises, with potentially catastrophic consequences on ecosystems and the environment. Hence, there has been increasing interest in reducing carbon dioxide emissions and relying on reusable fuel.
Killing two birds with one stone is the use of photocatalysts, which can convert carbon dioxide and water into hydrocarbon fuels. However, most existing photocatalysts are inefficient in absorbing light energy to carry out the conversion reaction. Thus, studies focusing on improving photocatalyst structure and surface properties to increase their solar energy absorption efficiency are under way.
In the present study, scientists led by Professor In Su-Il of DGIST placed graphene on reduced titanium dioxide in a stable and efficient way to develop a photocatalyst that can convert carbon dioxide into methane (CH4) or ethane (C2H6). The researchers demonstrated that the volume of hydrocarbon fuel generated by their system is 259 µmol/g and 77 µmol/g of methane and ethane, respectively. The conversion rate of their photocatalyst was shown to be 5.2 percent for methane and 2.7 percent for ethane, higher than that of conventional reduced titanium dioxide photocatalysts.
The researchers noted that their catalyst material could help address global warming problems and energy resource depletion issues by selectively producing higher levels of hydrocarbon materials using sunlight.
“The reduced titanium dioxide photocatalyst with graphene we developed has the advantage of being able to selectively convert CO2 into usable chemicals such as methane or ethane. We will conduct follow-up research to increase the conversion rate of the material so that it can be commercialized,” said In.
The article can be found at: Sorcar et al. (2018) High-rate Solar-light Photoconversion of CO2 to Fuel: Controllable Transformation From C1 to C2 Products.
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Source: Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology; Photo: Shutterstock
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