{"id":11125,"date":"2022-03-23t15:00:04","date_gmt":"2022-03-23t15:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dpetrov.2create.studio\/planet\/wordpress\/breakthrough-research-steps-towards-converting-carbon-dioxide-pollution-into-fuel\/"},"modified":"2022-03-23t15:00:04","modified_gmt":"2022-03-23t15:00:04","slug":"breakthrough-research-steps-towards-converting-carbon-dioxide-pollution-into-fuel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/story\/breakthrough-research-steps-towards-converting-carbon-dioxide-pollution-into-fuel\/","title":{"rendered":"breakthrough research steps towards converting carbon dioxide pollution into fuel"},"content":{"rendered":"

imagine a machine that could turn carbon dioxide, a harmful greenhouse gas, into a different substance \u2013\u2013 something useful, like fuel. this device would not only slow climate change by reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but also provide a new energy source. even better, imagine that this innovation is powered by the sun, using solar energy to convert one molecule into another.<\/p>\n

this might seem like something out of a climate scientist’s dream, an unattainable magical contraption. but chemists have already begun building the foundation of knowledge for this machine to become a reality. most recently, one study made a breakthrough: for the first time, researchers have mapped the molecular details of how the solar-powered reaction occurs.<\/p>\n

\u201cco2 is a very stable molecule,\u201d said dr. ton\u00fc pullerits, professor of chemical physics at lund university and an author of the study<\/a>. pullerits said that the first step to turning carbon dioxide into a more reactive, malleable substance, is transforming it to carbon monoxide.<\/p>\n

\u201cit will always cost you energy to go uphill from co2 to co. so, where can that energy come from?\u201d said j. houston miller, a researcher not affiliated with the study and professor of chemistry at george washington university. \u201cthe best answer is the sun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"clouds
(mattias heyde<\/a>\/unsplash<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

the study, published last month in nature, comes from a large multi-national scientific collaboration of researchers from denmark, sweden, china and germany.<\/p>\n

\u201cwhat makes our work special is that we explain how this reaction goes on\u2026 in quite a detailed way,\u201d pullerits said. \u201cit was an exciting day when we realized that we can actually explain this.\u201d<\/p>\n

the researchers used two materials to drive the solar-powered reaction. the first is a covalent organic framework, or cof, that absorbs light, and serves as a structure where the conversion takes place. pullerits described cof as a \u201cmicro porous material.\u201d the shape of the material gives it a large surface area, allowing it to efficiently absorb light, for example from the sun. as a light source, pullerits and colleagues shone laser pulses onto the cof. the second material is a catalytic complex containing the element rhenium, one of the rarest elements on earth. the complex is embedded in the cof, harnessing the light the cof absorbed to drive the reaction. pullerits said knowledge of the catalytic complex is not new, but the addition of the cof is.<\/p>\n

the study found its answers through spectrometry, a method of analyzing a material using waves of light. this work determined precisely how the catalytic complex and cof work together to capture light and harness it to convert carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide, a feat no study had yet reached.<\/p>\n

\u201cwe were using short laser pulses to follow the process. we triggered the reaction with one pulse of a laser, and with a second pulse slightly later, we could figure out what happened.\u201d pullerits said.<\/p>\n

in the study, light passed through the cof, and researchers observed what colors of light were absorbed and which weren\u2019t. what colors a molecule will absorb reveal a lot about the molecule\u2019s structure, miller said. <\/p>\n

the conversion from carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide requires adding electrons. the cof captures the light, and the light particles excite electrons, creating carbon monoxide. then, researchers studied the way the light particles triggered the electrons to join the reaction.<\/p>\n

however, researchers were puzzled by some of their observations at first. they knew one light pulse generated only half the electrons necessary for the conversion, but the reaction was occurring nonetheless. where did the other half of the electrons come from?<\/p>\n

then, the team had a breakthrough.<\/p>\n

\u201cwe all of a sudden realized\u2026 we can store the extra electrons needed in the porous cof material. the previous pulses made a few additional electrons which are stored. the cof is charged,\u201d pullerits said.<\/p>\n

finally, the team understood how the reaction occurs. the cof was not only absorbing light, but also absorbing electric charge by way of storing electrons. the new porous material they introduced was the key to the reaction. and through their use of light spectrometry, they knew the exact mechanism of how it all worked. this detailed knowledge allows researchers to recreate the reaction and find ways to make it more efficient, moving closer to the dream device.<\/p>\n

pullerits is modest about the implications of his work.<\/p>\n

\u201cmy general picture of how science works and how it can hopefully help mankind\u2026 it\u2019s like building a house. everybody brings in their brick and at the end somewhere there is going to be something that is very important, solving some practical question,\u201d pullerits said. \u201ci don\u2019t dare to claim that our work is more than a brick in a wall, but it was important that we covered this area.\u201d<\/p>\n

pullerits envisions a future with a fully built house, or \u201ca device that lets the sun shine on it and starts converting co2 to something more stable or usable.\u201d<\/p>\n

now, researchers can draft next steps.<\/p>\n

pullerits continued: \u201cnow that we understand what is going on, we can start asking the question, \u2018what could be done to make it better?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

“this is an evolutionary field. people need to keep doing it because somebody’s going to make it work,” said miller. “we could have solar powered fans that essentially scrub the air all the time, but we need to do it soon.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

some scientists envision a futuristic device that could use solar energy to convert co2 pollution into a more useful molecule. a new study from nature brings us one important step closer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10099,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4933],"tags":[4701,4442,657,591],"storyfest_categories":[],"class_list":["post-11125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-storyfest-2022","tag-chemistry","tag-greenhouse-emissions","tag-research","tag-storyfest"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nbreakthrough research steps towards converting carbon dioxide pollution into fuel - planet forward<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/planetforward1.wpengine.com\/story\/breakthrough-research-steps-towards-converting-carbon-dioxide-pollution-into-fuel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_us\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"breakthrough research steps towards converting carbon dioxide pollution into fuel - 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