Green Chemistry: Utilizing Nanodiamonds as Catalysts for Transforming Greenhouse Gas into Valuable Chemicals
Carbon dioxide can be used as a raw material for producing formic acid or methanol rather than releasing it into the atmosphere, which would exacerbate climate change.
Nanodiamonds can be used as an environmentally friendly photocatalyst for converting CO2 into valuable chemicals.
The conversion of CO2 using nanodiamonds has already been researched in laboratory studies, but the process needs to be brought closer to real-world application.
The diamond catalyst is "green" because it is made largely of carbon and does not require costly jewelry-grade diamonds.
The DIACAT consortium has examined various nanodiamond materials and found that even the weaker energy of blue sunlight can excite nanoparticles if there are enough hydrogen atoms on their surface.
The potential of nanocrystalline materials as catalysts is enormous because they provide very large surfaces in relation to their volume.
Researchers have developed a microreactor that can apply much higher quantities of carbon dioxide directly to the catalyst film, resulting in a larger quantity of formic acid.
Aqueous nanodiamond dispersions with various surface terminations, such as hydrogen, -OH, or -COOH, were investigated in the Laserlab at HZB after being excited by ultrafast laser pulses.
In the future, nanodiamond-based photocatalysts could potentially use sunlight to transform CO2 or N2 into hydrocarbons or ammonia, paving the way for sustainable chemical synthesis.
MORE STORIES
01
NASA’s Psyche Mission: Unlocking the Secrets of an Iron-rich Quadrillion Worth Asteroid
02
Uncovering the Root Cause of Short-Circuiting in Lithium-Metal Batteries
03
Scientists Uncover the Rapid Spread of the ‘Death Cap’ Mushroom Across North America