Novelties of nanotechnology: it became possible to produce alcohol from the air
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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Employees of the American Institute of Physics invented the latest graphene and copper "nanoigles" that convert carbon dioxide into particles of ethyl alcohol, using the energy potential of electric current. Such data are described in the periodical Chemistry Select.
"Our discovery was discovered, one might say, by accident. At the very beginning of our journey, we set ourselves a similar task, but we planned to spend much more time and energy on it. It turned out that the transformation takes place virtually independently, without our active participation "- this is the statement made by one of the participants in the experiment, a member of the national laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
It should be noted that over the past decade, scientists have made attempts to transform atmospheric constituents into fuel and other substances. For example, this year, in the middle of summer, the Chicago physicists invented a specific solar nanobattery using a flux of light energy for the molecular decomposition of carbon dioxide. This made it possible to produce hydrogen and carbon monoxide for the final production of methane, ethyl alcohol and other types of biofuel.
Specialists for a long time worked on these processes, trying to identify the most optimal methods of decomposition of carbon dioxide, with a minimum set of auxiliary transformation products (often useless or even frankly superfluous).
The main substance contributing to the process, nanotechnologists have chosen copper, which, in its properties, fits as best as possible into the carbon dioxide reduction reaction.
The catch was that copper as a result of the transformation contributed to the formation of not one component, but several, which became a serious obstacle to the application of this discovery in the industry.
Still, the problem was solved by additionally using another super-strong and ultra-power-consuming revolutionary material - graphene.
By giving the sheet graphene an original form, technologists partially applied copper nanoparticles to it. This made it possible to achieve the fact that the molecules of carbon dioxide were decomposed only in certain areas, namely, at the tips of the "nano-needle".
In the course of the experiment, the researchers were able to gain control over the process and provoked the conversion of 60% carbon dioxide to ethanol.
So far, many details of this nanoreaction remain unsolved. Nevertheless, the technology is already close to being used for industrial production of alcohol. Moreover, the new production will be more cost-effective: at a relatively low cost of catalyst substances, it is possible to obtain practically any quantity of the final product - ethyl alcohol.
According to the assumptions of practicing specialists, the results of this study can be used to accumulate additional energy that could be concentrated in solar batteries or other storage tanks. The resulting energy can then be used as a biological fuel for various household and production needs.
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