The push for sustainable energy solutions has led scientists to reimagine the use of carbon dioxide (CO2). Many researchers have been exploring ways to convert CO2 into carbon monoxide (CO), but Yale chemists Nilay Hazari and James Mayer have taken a different path. Their latest study introduces a novel method for transforming CO2 into formate, a compound used in preservatives and pesticides, offering new opportunities to tackle environmental issues by turning greenhouse gases into beneficial products.
Published online on March 7 in the journal Chem, the study by Hazari, Mayer, and their team presents an innovative approach to chemical transformations. According to Hazari, who holds the John Randolph Huffman Professorship of Chemistry at Yale, “Most of our fuels and commodity chemicals are currently derived from fossil fuels. Their combustion contributes to global warming and their extraction can be environmentally damaging. Therefore, there is a pressing need to explore alternative chemical feedstocks.”
Hazari and Mayer, both members of Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the Center for Hybrid Approaches in Solar Energy to Liquid Fuels (CHASE), have worked with a catalytic system that has been largely under-explored. This involves an immobilized molecular catalyst, where a molecular catalyst is attached to a solid support material.
The researchers developed molecular manganese catalysts linked to semiconducting, thermally oxidized porous silicon. When this silicon absorbs light, it transfers electrons to the manganese catalyst, effectively converting CO2 into formate. Mayer highlights the potential of this technique, saying, “Formate is a very appealing product, as it is a potential stepping-stone to materials used industrially in very large quantities.”
Eleanor Stewart-Jones, a Yale graduate student and co-lead author of the study, noted the importance of surface modifications in catalysis. “There’s a rich literature studying the modification of porous silicon surfaces,” she said. “Knowing that these surface modifications can be used to tune catalysis will hopefully be impactful for future hybrid catalysts using porous silicon.”
The study also suggests that the findings could be applicable to catalysts that work with other chemical feedstocks beyond CO2. Other co-lead authors include Xiaofan Jia of Yale and Young Hyun Hong, a former Yale researcher now at Sogang University in Korea.
Additional contributors from Yale include Abhishek Kumar, Justin Wedal, Jose Alvarez-Hernandez, Albert Gang, Noah Gibson, Madison Houck, Brandon Mercado, Hannah Nedzbala, Nicole Piekut, and Christine Quist. Collaborators from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Pennsylvania also contributed to the research. The study was supported by CHASE, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, and the Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture.
Original Story at news.yale.edu