Surprising Tribo‐catalytic Conversion of H₂O and CO₂ into Flammable Gases utilizing Frictions of Copper in Water

Abstract

Copper rotary disks were fabricated through mounting copper disks and magnets on opposite surfaces of Teflon disks separately, and quartz glass reactors (150 mL) were modified through covering their bottoms with Al 2 O 3 , copper, and titanium disks separately. For a glass-bottomed reactor placed with a copper rotary disk and filled with 50 mL water and 1 atm CO 2 , flammable gases of 670.96 ppm H 2 , 22.21 ppm CO, 3.98 ppm CH 4 , 0.96 ppm C 2 H 4 , and 0.66 ppm C 2 H 6 were surprisingly produced after the copper rotary disk was driven to rotate for 5 h; flammable gases were obtained in comparable amounts for reactors with Al 2 O 3 , copper, and titanium bottoms separately. A tribo-catalytic mechanism has been proposed, in which water at micro-holes in friction surfaces is squeezed by elastically deformed copper of rotating copper disks, and under increased pressure CO 2 and H 2 O are catalyzed to react to form flammable gases by copper.

Tribocatalytic Degradation of Organic Pollutants Using Fe2O3 Nanoparticles

“…Note that when the mixture of Fe 2 O 3 nanoparticles and RhB solution was subjected to ultrasonic vibration, the friction between Fe 2 O 3 and water molecules and the friction between Fe 2 O 3 nanoparticles themselves are the two main rub effects. 16,46 At this moment, the main contribution to RhB degradation is due to the friction between Fe 2 O 3 and water molecules or the friction between Fe 2 O 3 nanoparticles themselves, which needs further study. However, the ultrasonic vibration-induced RhB degradation results not only demonstrate that the friction between Fe 2 O 3 and water and the friction between Fe 2 O 3 nanoparticles themselves can result in RhB degradation but also suggest that the tribocatalytic performance of Fe 2 O 3 can be further improved by applying strong mechanical energy.…”

Harvesting Friction Energy for Tribo‐catalytic Degradation of Organic Pollutions via Natural Tourmaline

“…Sliding friction between the stirring rod and tourmaline powder is easy to occur, as shown in Figure 4(b), which is conducive to the generation of positive and negative electric charges to efficiently degrade the dye [27] . The performance of tribo‐catalysis depends on the friction between the two materials themselves [28] . In the process of friction, electrons move from one material to another and atoms on different materials have a tendency to retain or release electrons, which may lead to the creation of the charge required for tribo‐catalysis on the surface of the materials [29] .…”

“…[27] The performance of tribocatalysis depends on the friction between the two materials themselves. [28] In the process of friction, electrons move from one material to another and atoms on different materials have a tendency to retain or release electrons, which may lead to the creation of the charge required for tribo-catalysis on the surface of the materials. [29] Rough grinding wheels make it possible to rub tourmaline more effectively in a simple way.…”

Natural piezoelectric tourmaline mineral for piezocatalytic decomposition of organic dyes under vibration

“…The average diameter of the particles in the SEM image of tourmaline powder is ∼1.5 μm in Figure 1b. Natural tourmaline mineral is a bulk material that can expose more active mineral components on the crystal surface through grinding into micron‐sized powder, which can facilitate catalytic reaction 22,53 . The micrometer‐size powders are obtained through mechanical crush combined with ball‐milling or grinding, which belongs to a powder material fabrication method from big to small size.…”