Quest for materials with defects

Researchers designed this system to analyze several platform chemicals simultaneously. Image: Empa - Is it possible to convert CO₂ back to fuels or other useful chemicals? Absolutely - but not in a very targeted way just yet. Empa researcher Alessandro Senocrate is looking at defects in materials that will help us achieve this goal. Can we undo the burning of oil, gas and coal? With a renewable source of electricity, some water and a suitable catalyst, the excess CO2 in the atmosphere could become a resource, for example for the production of synthetic fuels, so-called synfuels. This promising idea is drawing a lot of research, including at Empa, because the conversion is challenging to implement. For instance, a reaction using a copper catalyst - the most commonly studied catalyst for the conversion of carbon dioxide - yields around 15 to 20 different types of molecules, from carbon monoxide and methane to propanol and acetic acid. "Some of these compounds are liquid at room temperature, others are gaseous," says Empa researcher Alessandro Senocrate.