Chemistry News

Reducing CO2 with common elements and sunlight

New rare-metal-free photocatalyst turns CO2 into carbon resource

June 26, 2018

An international collaborative research group including Tokyo Institute of Technology and Université PARIS DIDEROT and CRNS has discovered that CO₂ is selectively reduced to CO¹ when a photocatalyst² composed of an organic semiconductor material and an iron complex is exposed to visible light. They have made clear that it is possible to convert CO₂, the major factor of global warming, into a valuable carbon resource using visible light as the energy source, even with a photocatalyst composed of only commonly occurring elements.

[1] CO : It is receiving attention as a valuable carbon resource, since hydrocarbon can be synthesized from it using methods such as the Fischer-Tropsch process.

[2] Photocatalyst : Molecules or substances which promote reaction as a catalyst by absorbing light.