Chemistry News

Reducing CO2 with common elements and sunlight

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

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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.

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