Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Joon Hyuk Lee, Soon Hong Lee, Dong Hack Suh
Summary: There is a growing interest in the utilization of CO2 for chemical conversion. This study investigated the application of ultrafine bubbles of CO2 (CUB) on activated carbon fiber (ACF) for environmentally friendly heavy metal adsorption. Results showed that CUB treatment introduced oxygen content on the carbonaceous surface, leading to a decrease in specific surface area but an increase in acidity. The adsorption capacity followed the order of N-ACF > C-ACF > ACF, and CUBs demonstrated good regeneration efficiency and cost-viability from a long-term macroeconomic perspective.
SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGIES
(2023)
Article
Polymer Science
Ryan R. Larder, Thomas M. Bennett, L. Scott Blankenship, Jesum A. Fernandes, Bethany K. Husband, Rachel L. Atkinson, Matthew J. Derry, Daniel T. W. Toolan, Higor A. Centurion, Paul D. Topham, Renato V. Goncalves, Vincenzo Taresco, Steven M. Howdle
Summary: RAFT mediated dispersion polymerisation in scCO2 is an efficient method for synthesising block copolymer microparticles with complex internal nanostructures. In this study, phase separated triblock terpolymer microparticles were successfully synthesized using a simple two-pot sequential synthesis procedure, showcasing high monomer conversions and no purification steps. The P4VP block in the microparticles was then utilized as a structure-directing agent for the fabrication of TiO2 microparticles, leading to increased surface area and enhanced photocatalytic efficiencies when compared to traditional porous TiO2 particles.
Article
Chemistry, Applied
Caroline E. P. Silva, Juliana S. Bernardes, Watson Loh
Summary: This study investigates the ability of nanocellulose to stabilize oil droplets and nanoparticles in the same colloidal system, finding that it can simultaneously stabilize oil droplets and titanium dioxide nanoparticles. This could potentially be used as a formulation tool for other complex systems.
CARBOHYDRATE POLYMERS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Elizabeth A. K. Wilson, Prashant Kumar, Douglas G. Montjoy, Nicholas A. Kotov
Summary: Liquid and supercritical CO2 have high solubility limits for hydrocarbons and can be used as green hydrophobic solvents. However, dispersing hydrophilic particles in CO2 is challenging due to their tendency to aggregate, limiting their surface area and catalytic efficiency. This study shows that hydrophilic semiconductor particles can be effectively dispersed in a liquid CO2 mixture with acetonitrile (ACN) by preventing aggregation using surface corrugation. Geometrically complex particles with nanoscale spikes disperse and remain suspended longer in liquid CO2 compared to other particles. The results highlight the need for further research to understand the wetting behavior of hydrophilic particles in high-pressure nonpolar environments.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Michael Filippi, Tim Moeller, Liang Liang, Peter Strasser
Summary: This work investigates the impact of catholyte flow compartment design and catholyte bubble flow characteristics on the electrocatalytic reactivity and product selectivity of a gas diffusion electrode inside a CO2 flow cell electrolyzer. The findings suggest that a homogenous fluid velocity distribution combined with fluid velocity in the range of 0.1-0.01 m/s is optimal for high yields in C2+ products at high current densities. The study also highlights the importance of gas bubble dynamics and local pH, which are influenced by the design architecture. The authors propose a hydrodynamic volcano model to explain the competition between bubble release rate and local pH. This work provides valuable insights for improving the performance of CO2 electroreduction systems.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
(2023)
Review
Biochemical Research Methods
Sachin Talekar, Byung Hoon Jo, Jonathan S. Dordick, Jungbae Kim
Summary: This article discusses the challenges and solutions in carbonic anhydrase-related technologies and presents the recent advances in utilizing carbonic anhydrase for the production of value-added chemicals through CO2 conversion.
CURRENT OPINION IN BIOTECHNOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Aleksei N. Marianov, Alena S. Kochubei, Tanglaw Roman, Oliver J. Conquest, Catherine Stampfl, Yijiao Jiang
Summary: This study investigates the stability mechanism of Co porphyrin-based catalysts during CO2 reduction and identifies the main reasons for gradual activity loss, providing insights into improving catalyst stability.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Jiachen Li, Jinyu Guo, Hongjie Dai
Summary: Microscale infrared spectroscopy was developed for dynamic quantitation of CO2(aq) in aqueous solutions, providing new insights and methods for CO2 capture, storage, photo-/electroreduction, and CO2 analysis in drinks.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Ruirui Yun, Tuanhui Li, Beibei Zhang, Lei He, Shoujie Liu, Can Yu, Zheng Chen, Shizhong Luo
Summary: A novel strategy of designing a hollow structure via post-modified N sites coordinating to metal species has been proposed. This approach has successfully achieved a high loading atomically dispersed Co site catalyst, which exhibits superb performance in CO2 cycloaddition to ethylene carbonate. This novel avenue can be extended to other atomically dispersed metal catalysts with high loading.
CHEMICAL COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Mechanics
Mohammad Hossein Javanmard, Farshad Niksirat, Mostafa Keshavarz Moraveji
Summary: This study investigates the formation and breakup of droplets in aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS) driven by gravity in microfluidic devices. Four typical flow regimes are observed at different intersection angles, and scaling laws describing the flow behavior are proposed. Additionally, varying the geometry of the device can influence the flow regimes.
Article
Engineering, Chemical
Jinping Liu, Qun Fan, Xiaoyi Chen, Siyu Kuang, Tianxiang Yan, Hai Liu, Sheng Zhang, Xinbin Ma
Summary: A novel method to prepare uniform hollow oxide-derived copper crystals is reported, which can reduce CO2 to C2 products (ethylene and ethanol). The degree of hollowness affects C2 selectivity and can be used to enrich important intermediates for deeper reduction products.
INDUSTRIAL & ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Ai-Nhan Au-Duong, Asem Abdulahad
Summary: This study proposes a new type of IL-encapsulated microparticles consisting of a cross-linked copolymer shell and an ionic liquid core as a viable material for CO2 capture. The composition of the shell and the thermal stability affect the encapsulation efficiency of the ionic liquid. Interestingly, there is a trade-off between CO2 absorption capacity and ionic liquid encapsulation.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Liang Huang, Ge Gao, Chaobo Yang, Xiao-Yan Li, Rui Kai Miao, Yanrong Xue, Ke Xie, Pengfei Ou, Cafer T. T. Yavuz, Yu Han, Gaetano Magnotti, David Sinton, Edward H. H. Sargent, Xu Lu
Summary: Electrochemical CO2 reduction (CO2R) is a method to close the carbon cycle for chemical synthesis. The research has mainly focused on ambient pressure CO2, but industrial CO2 is usually pressurized and in dissolved form. By studying the effects of pressure on CO2R, the researchers found that higher pressure leads to increased formate selectivity. They further enhanced this pressure-mediated effect by functionalizing the surface of a Cu cathode with a proton-resistant layer. This work highlights the potential of using industrial CO2 as a feedstock for sustainable chemical synthesis.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Xue Teng, Yanli Niu, Shuaiqi Gong, Mingze Xu, Xuan Liu, Lvlv Ji, Zuofeng Chen
Summary: In/ZnO@C hollow nanocubes exhibit excellent catalytic activity for CO2 reduction, achieving high current density and selectivity for formic acid production. Coupling the cathode with a RuO2 anode enables solar-driven electrochemical CO2/H2O splitting. Furthermore, constructing an aqueous rechargeable Zn-CO2 battery with In/ZnO@C as the cathode holds promise for green energy conversion and storage.
MATERIALS CHEMISTRY FRONTIERS
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Xiaoshan Wang, Wenhang Wang, Jinqiang Zhang, Hongzhi Wang, Zhongxue Yang, Hui Ning, Jiexin Zhu, Yunlong Zhang, Lu Guan, Xiaoling Teng, Qingshan Zhao, Mingbo Wu
Summary: A hierarchical Janus electrocatalyst with SnO2 and Bi2O3 was fabricated for efficient CO2 reduction to formate, showing remarkable catalytic performance and excellent stability; In-situ FT-IR confirmed that the Janus active sites are conducive to the HCOO* reaction pathway, and the catalyst exhibited good stability.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL
(2021)
