Alternative energy and the creation of fuel that would be safe for the environment and at the same time of high quality, sometimes forces scientists to come up with very elegant methods of obtaining. For example, Korean researchers recently presented a technology for producing fuel from air. Moreover, this is not a figure of speech, but a real technology described in the journal Nature Communications.
A group of chemists in South Korea have created a nanomaterial capable of converting atmospheric carbon dioxide into methane using only the energy of sunlight. According to study author Hyunjun Sun of the KAIST Institute, “Our catalyst is difficult to compare with other types of similar nanoparticles, since all such experiments were carried out under extremely different conditions. Nevertheless, we can already say that it has a record high level of activity and efficiency, and in some cases surpasses competitors. Other similar catalysts, developed in recent years, have two major drawbacks that prevent them from being applied in practice - their operating speed is often extremely slow, and faster catalysts are usually unstable, and they have to be cleaned after several hours of use. In addition, they all have rather low efficiency."
The invention of South Korean specialists is free from these disadvantages. In the course of experiments on zinc oxide nanoparticles and combining them with other nanomaterials, scientists have observed how their chemical and optical properties change. In the course of these experiments, it was possible to find out that combined nanoparticles of zinc oxide and copper oxide actively absorb CO2 molecules, break down and convert carbon dioxide into methane under water and in good lighting conditions. In addition, these nanoparticles did not degrade or become contaminated with prolonged use.
Now experts are aimed at further studying and improving the technology in order to increase the efficiency of the reactor and to organize the production of industrial installations for obtaining a practically inexhaustible source of energy.
Based on materials from RIA Novosti
Vladimir Kuznetsov