Novel electrode could convert CO2 into useful products

Activation of carbon dioxide – converting it into useful carbon-based fuels and chemicals – is a subject of much interest in recent years, as it may be away to reduce the levels of the gas in the atmosphere and therefore combat its greenhouse effect that contributes to climate change. However, it has always been a difficult goal, because CO2 is so stable that most methods to reduce the carbon atom to a more reactive state have had poor yields and reaction mechanisms that are hard to determine and understand. Many researchers have attempted to mimic the way that carbon dioxide is activated in nature: electrochemically. Plants achieve this feat through photosynthesis, converting carbon into sugars.

Physicists and chemists from the University of Bath, collaborating with two Chinese institutions – Fudang University, Shanghai and the Shanghai Institute of Pollution Control and Ecological Security – have devised a novel type of electrode that they claim performs much better than previous versions. The key to its performance is its shape: rather than being flat, it is bowl-shaped.