A liquid metal catalyst for the conversion of ethanol into graphitic carbon layers under an ultrasonic cavitation field

Hideya Kawasaki; Tomoko Otsuki; Fumiya Sugino; Ken Yamamoto; Tomoharu Tokunaga; Rintaro Tokura; Tetsu Yonezawa

doi:10.1039/d2cc02510h

A liquid metal catalyst for the conversion of ethanol into graphitic carbon layers under an ultrasonic cavitation field

Chem Commun (Camb). 2022 Jul 12;58(56):7741-7744. doi: 10.1039/d2cc02510h.

Authors

Hideya Kawasaki¹, Tomoko Otsuki¹, Fumiya Sugino², Ken Yamamoto², Tomoharu Tokunaga³, Rintaro Tokura⁴, Tetsu Yonezawa⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry and Materials Engineering, Faculty of Chemistry, Materials and Bioengineering, Kansai University, Suita-Shi, Osaka 564-8680, Japan. hkawa@kansai-u.ac.jp.
² Department of Pure and Applied Physics, The Faculty of Engineering Science, Kansai University, Suita-Shi, Osaka 564-8680, Japan.
³ Department Materials Science and Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Nagoya University, Furo-Cho, Nagoya 464-8603, Japan.
⁴ Division of Materials Science and Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-8628, Japan. tetsu@eng.hokudai.ac.jp.

PMID: 35723415
DOI: 10.1039/d2cc02510h

Abstract

Eutectic gallium indium (EGaIn) has drawn considerable research interest in potential liquid catalysis. Herein, we report that EGaIn liquid metal acts as a catalyst for the growth of a graphitic carbon layer from ethanol under ultrasonication. High-speed imaging demonstrated the formation of ultrasonic cavitation bubbles at the liquid metal/ethanol interface, which facilitated the pyrolysis of ethanol into graphitic carbon on the liquid metal surface.