Though carbon dioxide is a waste product of combustion, it can also be a potential feedstock for the production of fine and commodity organic chemicals provided that an efficient means to convert it to useful organic synthons can be developed. Herein we report a common element, nanostructured catalyst for the direct electrochemical conversion of CO2 to ethanol with high Faradaic efficiency (63 % at −1.2 V vs RHE) and high selectivity (84 %) that operates in water and at ambient temperature and pressure. Lacking noble metals or other rare or expensive materials, the catalyst is comprised of Cu nanoparticles on a highly textured, N-doped carbon nanospike film. Electrochemical analysis and density functional theory (DFT) calculations suggest a preliminary mechanism in which active sites on the Cu nanoparticles and the carbon nanospikes work in tandem to control the electrochemical reduction of carbon monoxide dimer to alcohol.
Or in english, while they were attempting to create a better fuel, scientists accidentally discovered a way to convert carbon dioxide
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Wouldn't it be great if instead of polluting the atmosphere cars could actually be used as a way to reduce co2 emissions? This is just one finding, I'm sure many others have been found It would be great if we could finally convince industries to think about the planet for once. I know the interest is money, but maybe they could just as well use a technology such as this one to both earn profit & help the planet.
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