UK researchers think they have a recipe for greener methanol production. It involves shining sunlight onto single copper atoms deposited on a light-activated material.
The international team includes scientists from the University of Nottingham's School of Chemistry, University of Birmingham, University of Queensland and University of Ulm.
The researchers say they have developed a new form of carbon nitride with crystalline nanoscale domains that allow efficient interaction with light and sufficient charge separation.
They were able to produce methanol instead of methane, a greenhouse gas, after adding a small amount of copper to the nanocrystalline carbon nitride, which is already 44 times more active than traditional carbon nitride.
The nanocrystalline structure allows electrons to move from carbon nitride to CO2, an essential step in the production of methanol from CO2 under the influence of solar irradiation.
The process involved heating carbon nitride to crystallinity, which maximized the functional properties of the material for photocatalysis. Using magnetron sputtering, the researchers deposited atomic copper in a solventless process. This allows for close contact between the semiconductor and metal atoms.
The research has been published in the Sustainable Energy & Fuels Journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
