Nanomaterials for the Conversion of Carbon Dioxide into Renewable Fuels and Value‐Added Products

BMIM–BF4 Mediated Electrochemical CO2 Reduction to CO Is a Reverse Reaction of CO Oxidation in Air—Experimental Evidence

“…e Involved isotopic 13 CO 2 as a reactant gas instead of 12 S2a-(A)). 24,45 Surprisingly, along with the formation of O 2 , the formation of a dark-gray colored thin film on the surface of Pt anode was also noted, whose thickness was found to be increased continuously with the increase of the electrolysis time. 45 This latter in situ formed gray colored thin film has been identified as a cobalt phosphate composite water oxidation catalyst (WOC), whose formation was first reported by Nocera et al 46 When the Ar gas was replaced with a highpurity CO 2 gas and the CPBE experiment was performed as per the reaction conditions given in the second row of Table 1, the headspace area of the cathodic compartment was found to be gradually enriched with CO along with up to 5% H 2 (Figure S2a-(B)).…”

“…24,45 Surprisingly, along with the formation of O 2 , the formation of a dark-gray colored thin film on the surface of Pt anode was also noted, whose thickness was found to be increased continuously with the increase of the electrolysis time. 45 This latter in situ formed gray colored thin film has been identified as a cobalt phosphate composite water oxidation catalyst (WOC), whose formation was first reported by Nocera et al 46 When the Ar gas was replaced with a highpurity CO 2 gas and the CPBE experiment was performed as per the reaction conditions given in the second row of Table 1, the headspace area of the cathodic compartment was found to be gradually enriched with CO along with up to 5% H 2 (Figure S2a-(B)). 24 The H 2 had exhibited about 25 times higher response for thermal conductivity detection (TCD) in comparison to CO gas in the capillary column employed for detecting these gases by gas chromatography (GC) (Figure S2b).…”

Practicable Artificial Photosynthesis: Its Relevance, Fundamental Challenges and Opportunities

“…In fact, the e-batteries such as Li-ion batteries are best suitable, indispensable and opt for low-energy as well as low-energy density required portable devices such as, mobile phones, laptops, etc., but not for the transportation of heavy duty vehicles such as, buses, lorries, trucks, aero planes, etc., and to run a city having a demand for 500 MW with solar energy [1]. Furthermore, batteries also have certain limitations with respect to their cost, service life, recharging time, involvement of hazardous and polluting materials, etc.. Once a suitable and inexpensive method for converting sunlight into electricity is developed, and thus, obtained electricity is suitably utilized to convert the waste-stream greenhouse CO2 gas into CO, and the water into H 2 and O 2 gases (Figure 15), all most all countries can generate solar energy in their own countries to meet their energy requirements without depending on foreign countries to import the fossil fuels while meeting all the deadlines imposed by IPCC and UNFCCC as far as environmental safety and release of CO 2 into the atmosphere are concerned [1,[9][10][11][12][13][14]. Upon implementing such an PAP process worldwide, in about 10 to 15 years period, a lot of fossil fuels burned so far to meet the energy requirement of the society can be restored in the form of natural gas at all the sea shores across the globe as no CO 2 is freshly released into the atmosphere in large quantities, whereas, the already present CO 2 in the atmosphere is consumed by the plant leaves so that its concentration will come down to those levels (i.e., about 280 ppm) present in the atmosphere prior to the industrial revolution started during period of around 1750 to early 1800 century [1].…”

“…According to Prof. Richard E. Smalley (June 6, 1943-October 28, 2005 at Rice University, USA (a nobel laureate in chemistry for the year 1996 for discovering Buckminsterfullerene, or buckyball, a new form of carbon), the humanity's top 10 problems for the next 50 years are (in order of preference) [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15].…”

“…In NP process, somewhat less than 1% of the sunlight is converted into bio-energy in the form of plant materials, which when accumulated and transformed over geologic ages yielded fossil fuels [87,91]. In this connection, the artificial photosynthesis (AP) has a tremendous potential, and it is a scientific challenge, and upon successful development of it, the market would be gigantic [11][12][13][14][15]129]. Owing to CO2's extremely stable nature, converting it back to a useful value added chemical in an endothermic reaction, on the same scale and with the same rate currently it is being produced is out of today's scientific and technological ability.…”