Eternal alcohol :)
Scientists have created a nanomaterial that produces alcohol from the air
Physicists from the USA have created special "nanoeedles" made of graphene and copper that use electric current energy to convert carbon dioxide (CO2) into ethanol molecules – ordinary alcohol, according to an article published in the journal ChemistrySelect (Song et al., High-Selectivity Electrochemical Conversion of CO2 to Ethanol using a Copper Nanoparticle/N-Doped Graphene Electrode).
"We actually accidentally discovered that this material works the way it works. Initially, we just wanted to implement the first step in this reaction, but during the experiments we quickly realized that the catalyst carried out the entire reaction by itself, without interference from us," said Adam Rondinone from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (USA).
In recent years, scientists have been actively trying to find a way to convert atmospheric CO2 into biofuels and other useful substances. For example, in July of this year, physicists from Chicago presented an unusual solar battery made of nanomaterials, which directly uses light energy to split carbon dioxide molecules and produce carbon monoxide and hydrogen, from which methane, ethanol and other types of biofuels can be obtained.
Rondinon and his colleagues brought this process to its logical conclusion, trying to find new, more efficient ways to split CO2 into carbon monoxide and oxygen, without generating other reaction byproducts that are useless or even interfere with the production of biofuels from carbon dioxide.
As the main material for this catalyst, scientists have chosen copper, whose electrochemical properties are ideal for reducing CO2 into carbon monoxide and other types of molecules.
The problem is that copper nanoparticles and plates convert CO2 not into one substance, but into several dozen molecules at once, whose presence and concentrations depend on the voltage that is passed through the catalyst. This makes the industrial use of such CO2 splitters virtually impossible.
Physicists from Oak Ridge solved this problem with the help of another promising nanomaterial - graphene. Having crushed graphene sheets into a kind of "accordion", scientists seeded their folds with copper nanoparticles, which led to the fact that CO2 molecules were split in strictly designated places – on the tops of graphene "nanoigles".
This allowed American researchers to flexibly control what happens during this splitting, and make CO2 almost always turn into ordinary ethyl alcohol – on average, about 60% of carbon dioxide molecules turn into ethanol.
Scientists do not yet know what exactly happens at these points, however, they assume that graphene folds interfere with the complete recovery of CO2 molecules and thereby prevent them from turning into ethylene, ethane and other hydrocarbons, as well as focus and redirect electron flows to copper nanoparticles.
This technology for producing alcohol from the air, according to physicists, is almost completely ready for industrial use – the cost of such catalysts is low, and they can be produced in any quantities. Scientists believe that their invention can be used to store excess energy collected by solar panels or wind turbines in the form of alcohol, which can then be used as biofuel for cars or as a working fluid for fuel cells.
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13.10.2016