#Nickel atom aids carbon dioxide reduction

Posted on May 23, 2021 by Nanthakumar Victor Emmanuel, P.Eng Leave a comment

Knowing how a nickel iron sulfide catalyst helps reduce carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide and other carbon-based products could lead to technologies that can convert carbon dioxide in the atmosphere into industrially useful chemicals.

Scientists are closer to finding ways to convert carbon dioxide in the atmosphere into industrially useful chemicals thanks to a RIKEN study that looked at how nature converts carbon dioxide into more complex organic compounds—one of the processes underpinning the origin of life.

In nature, carbon dioxide is converted into carbon monoxide and then into more complex organic compounds through reactions that are most likely linked to the origin of life on Earth.

Carbon dioxide reduction occurred only in the presence of nickel, which binds to carbon while iron binds to oxygen. As the potential was increased, the iron sulfur and nickel cluster catalyzed the further reduction of carbon monoxide into the formyl group, which was then converted into methane and ethane.