Liquid-Metal-Enabled Mechanical-Energy-Induced CO2 Conversion

Junma Tang; Jianbo Tang; Mohannad Mayyas; Mohammad B Ghasemian; Jing Sun; Md Arifur Rahim; Jiong Yang; Jialuo Han; Douglas J Lawes; Rouhollah Jalili; Torben Daeneke; Maricruz G Saborio; Zhenbang Cao; Claudia A Echeverria; Francois-Marie Allioux; Ali Zavabeti; Jessica Hamilton; Valerie Mitchell; Anthony P O'Mullane; Richard B Kaner; Dorna Esrafilzadeh; Michael D Dickey; Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh

doi:10.1002/adma.202105789

Liquid-Metal-Enabled Mechanical-Energy-Induced CO₂ Conversion

Adv Mater. 2022 Jan;34(1):e2105789. doi: 10.1002/adma.202105789. Epub 2021 Oct 21.

Authors

Junma Tang¹, Jianbo Tang¹, Mohannad Mayyas¹, Mohammad B Ghasemian¹, Jing Sun¹, Md Arifur Rahim¹, Jiong Yang¹, Jialuo Han¹, Douglas J Lawes², Rouhollah Jalili¹, Torben Daeneke³, Maricruz G Saborio¹, Zhenbang Cao¹, Claudia A Echeverria¹, Francois-Marie Allioux¹, Ali Zavabeti⁴, Jessica Hamilton⁵, Valerie Mitchell⁵, Anthony P O'Mullane⁶, Richard B Kaner^{7

8}, Dorna Esrafilzadeh⁹, Michael D Dickey¹⁰, Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemical Engineering, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia.
² Mark Wainwright Analytical Centre, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia.
³ School of Engineering, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Melbourne, VIC, 3001, Australia.
⁴ Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia.
⁵ Australian Synchrotron, ANSTO, Clayton, VIC, 3168, Australia.
⁶ School of Chemistry and Physics, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, QLD, 4001, Australia.
⁷ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and California NanoSystems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA.
⁸ Department of Material Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA.
⁹ Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia.
¹⁰ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA.

PMID: 34613649
DOI: 10.1002/adma.202105789

Abstract

A green carbon capture and conversion technology offering scalability and economic viability for mitigating CO₂ emissions is reported. The technology uses suspensions of gallium liquid metal to reduce CO₂ into carbonaceous solid products and O₂ at near room temperature. The nonpolar nature of the liquid gallium interface allows the solid products to instantaneously exfoliate, hence keeping active sites accessible. The solid co-contributor of silver-gallium rods ensures a cyclic sustainable process. The overall process relies on mechanical energy as the input, which drives nano-dimensional triboelectrochemical reactions. When a gallium/silver fluoride mix at 7:1 mass ratio is employed to create the reaction material, 92% efficiency is obtained at a remarkably low input energy of 230 kWh (excluding the energy used for dissolving CO₂ ) for the capture and conversion of a tonne of CO₂ . This green technology presents an economical solution for CO₂ emissions.

Keywords: CO 2 conversion; liquid metals; mechanical energy; triboelectrochemical reactions.

Abstract

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