Splitting carbon dioxide using low-cost catalyst materials

EPFL scientists have built the first Earth-abundant and low-cost catalytic system for splitting CO₂ into CO and oxygen, an important step towards achieving the conversion of renewable energy into hydrocarbon fuels. A promising avenue for the future of clean energy is to store it in the form of carbon-based fuels produced from renewable sources, effectively enabling the clean use of liquid fuels such as gasoline. A first step is the electrolysis of carbon dioxide into oxygen and carbon monoxide, which can be subsequently be transformed into liquid fuels. But current CO-forming catalysts are either not selective enough or too expensive to be industrially viable. EPFL scientists have now developed an Earth-abundant catalyst based on copper-oxide nanowires modified with tin oxide. A solar-driven system set up using this catalyst was able to split CO₂ with an efficiency of 13. The work is published inâ? Nature Energy ,â?and is expected to help worldwide efforts to synthetically produce carbon-based fuels from CO₂ and water.