Scientists have created a nano-material that produces alcohol from the air

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MOSCOW, Oct. 13 -. RIA Novosti Physicists in the US have created a special "nanotip" graphene and copper, which use electric current energy to convert carbon dioxide (CO2) in the ethanol molecule - the usual alcohol, according to a paper published in the journal ChemistrySelect.

"We actually accidentally discovered that this material works, how it works. Initially we just wanted to implement the first step of this reaction, but we quickly realized in the course of experiments, the catalyst is carried out all the reaction itself, without intervention from our side" - said Adam Rondinon (Adam Rondinone) National laboratory in Oak Ridge (USA).

In recent years, scientists are actively trying to find a way to atmospheric CO2 conversion into biofuels and other valuable substances. For example, in July this year physics from Chicago presented an unusual solar battery of nanomaterials, which directly uses light energy to cleave molecules of carbon dioxide and the production of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, from which you can get methane, ethanol and other biofuels.

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Rondinon and his colleagues have brought this process to its logical end, trying to find new and more effective ways of CO2 splitting into carbon monoxide and oxygen, without generating other reaction by-products which are useless or even prevent the production of biofuels from carbon dioxide.

As the main material for this catalyst, the scientists chose copper, whose electrochemical properties are ideal for the recovery of CO2 in the carbon monoxide and other molecules. 

The problem is that the copper plate and the nanoparticles are converted to CO2 is not a single substance, but to several tens molecules whose presence and concentration dependent voltage, which is passed through the catalyst. This makes it virtually impossible for the industrial use of these splitters CO2.

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Physicists at the Oak Ridge solved this problem by using another promising nanomaterial - graphene. Crumpling the graphene sheets in a kind of "bunching", the scientists planted their folds copper nanoparticles, which led to the fact that CO2 molecules are cleaved in strictly designated areas - on the tops of graphene "nanotip".

This enabled US researchers to flexibly control what happens in the course of digestion, and cause CO2 to turn almost always in a conventional ethyl alcohol - on average, about 60% of the molecules of carbon dioxide is converted into ethanol. 

Scientists do not know exactly what happens at these points, however, they suggest that graphene folds interfere with the complete restoration of the CO2 molecules and thereby prevent them to turn into ethylene, ethane and other hydrocarbons, as well as focus and redirect streams of electrons on the copper nanoparticles.

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This technology for producing alcohol from the air, according to physicists, is almost completely ready for industrial application - the cost of such catalysts is low, and they can be produced in any quantity. As scientists believe, their invention can be used for storing surplus energy collected by solar panels or wind turbines, in the form of alcohol which can then be used as a biofuel for vehicles or as a working body for fuel cells.