Production of high-value chemicals is now possible with advanced carbon capture and utilization
Research creates A novel way to make valuable chemicalsÂ
Many researchers are studying carbon capture and utilization, in an effort to develop sustainable solutions to humanity’s energy needs! This is the practice of using excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere or from the point sources, instead of fossil fuels, in order to synthesize chemicals that are used to make everyday products, from plastics to fuels to even pharmaceuticals.
Feng Jiao who is an associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Delaware is one of the leaders in the field of carbon capture and utilization. Recently, he and his research colleagues have made a new discovery in this field that could further advance the carbon capture and utilization and also extend its promise to new industries.
 Jiao and his collaborators from the California Institute of Technology, Nanjing University (China), and Soochow University (China) in the journal Nature Chemistry, described how the research team formed carbon-nitrogen bonds in an electrochemical carbon monoxide reduction reaction, that had led to the production of high-value chemicals called amides. These high-value substances are useful in a variety of industries, even including pharmaceuticals.
The research team is the first to do this starting with carbon dioxide as a carbon source, which can expand to a variety of products, said Jiao, the associate director for UD’s Center for Catalytic Science and Technology (CCST).
The science behind these findings of producing high-quality chemicals is electrochemistry, which utilizes electricity to produce any chemical change. In previous research studies, Jiao and his team developed a special silver catalyst, which can convert carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide. Then, he wanted to further upgrade this carbon monoxide into multi-carbon products useful in the production of high-value chemicals in fuels, pharmaceuticals and much more.
Jiao added that in the field of electrochemical carbon dioxide conversion, his team was stuck with only four major products which can be made using this technology. i.e, ethylene, ethanol, propanol, and, as they had reported just a couple months ago in Nature Catalysis, acetate.Â
The secret ingredient to unlocking the potential of the system is Nitrogen. His research team used an electrochemical flow reactor which is typically fed with carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide, but this time researchers put in both carbon monoxide and ammonia. The nitrogen source interacts with a copper catalyst at the electrode-electrolyte interface which in turn leads to the formation of carbon-nitrogen (CN) bonds. This process allowed the research team to synthesize and in the production of high-value chemicals that had never been made before in this way, including amides, that can be used in pharmaceutical synthesis. Many pharmaceutical compounds contain nitrogen, and it actually provides a unique way to build large molecules that contains nitrogen from simple carbon and nitrogen species, said Jiao.
Jiao shared some of his preliminary study findings with William Goddard III, principal investigator at the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis at Caltech, at a meeting of the American Chemical Society. Goddard is a world-leading expert who uses Quantum Mechanics in order to determine the reaction mechanism as well as the rates of such electrocatalytic processes, was very excited about this unexpected discovery and immediately set his researchers group. Tao Cheng in the Goddard lab found that the new carbon-nitrogen bond coupling was an off-shoot of the mechanism that had been determined for the production of high-value chemicals of ethylene and ethanol, suggesting that Jiao might be able to couple bonds other than CN.
Jiao added that through close collaboration with Prof. Goddard, he and his team learned quite a lot during this research in terms of how this carbon-nitrogen bond formed on the surface of the catalyst. he also mentioned that this gave them important insights on how they can design even the better catalysts to facilitate some kinds of chemical reactions which helps in the production of high-value chemicals.
The implications of this study on a new method for the production of high-value chemicals could be far-ranging.
Jiao added that this has a significant impact down the road to partially address carbon dioxide emission issues. Now one can actually utilize it as the carbon feedstock production of high-value chemicals.
Author: Ria Roy
