Collaborators in Spain and Germany have built a microreactor that uses visible light to drive a reaction that turns carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide – an important chemical building block.
The reverse water–gas shift (RWGS) reaction converts carbon dioxide and hydrogen into carbon monoxide and water and is often performed at high temperatures over a copper catalyst. Scientists around the world are working to design more efficient catalysts so that the RWGS reaction can proceed at lower temperatures but many of these can’t be used in industry due to the poor transition from lab to reactor. Now, Alexander Navarrete, from the University of Valladolid in Spain, has taken on this challenge by combining the catalyst and the reactor in one small device. Read the full article in Chemistry World»
Read the original journal article in Faraday Discussions:
Novel windows for “solar commodities”: a device for CO2 reduction using plasmonic catalyst activation
Alexander Navarrete, Sergio Muñoz, Luis M. Sanz-Moral, Juergen J. Brandner, Peter Pfeifer, Ángel Martín, Roland Dittmeyer and María J. Cocero
DOI: 10.1039/C5FD00109A, Paper
