6/27/2023 0 Comments Lynn outlast 2![]() ![]() "Colleagues like Ted present us with challenging problems that stimulate our creativity to develop novel ideas and innovative characterization methods." "Modern research problems are complex and multifaceted and require diverse yet integrated capabilities to analyze materials down to the atomic scale," Dravid said. Vinayak Dravid, another senior author on the paper and the Abraham Harris Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, is the founding director of the Northwestern University Atomic and Nanoscale Characterization (NUANCE) Center, which allowed the team to access diverse capabilities for atomic- and electronic-scale measurements of materials. What we tried to do here was set up conditions that favor one product above all others." "Most of the catalysts used for this second step facilitate multiple simultaneous reactions, which leads to a mix of different two-carbon products that can be hard to separate and purify. "A major challenge that we face is selectivity," Wicks said. Gaseous CO is then passed through a second electrolyzer, where another catalyst transforms it into various molecules containing two or more carbon atoms. Their alternative method takes place via a two-step process: first, captured gaseous CO 2 is passed through an electrolyzer, where it reacts with water and electrons to form carbon monoxide (CO). Lifecycle assessment databases showed the team that for every kilogram of acetic acid produced from methanol, the process releases 1.6 kg of CO 2. Production at this scale is primarily derived from methanol, which comes from fossil fuels." "But about 90% of the acetic acid market is for feedstock in the manufacture of paints, coatings, adhesives and other products. "Acetic acid in vinegar needs to come from biological sources via fermentation because it's consumed by humans," Wicks said. recipient Josh Wicks, one of the paper's four co-lead authors, said this use accounts for only a small proportion of what it's used for. Though acetic acid may be most familiar as the key component in household vinegar, recent University of Toronto Ph.D. ![]() His team has a track record of using electrolyzers-devices in which electricity drives a desired chemical reaction forward-to convert captured carbon into key industrial chemicals, including ethylene and propanol. Sargent, the paper's corresponding author, is Northwestern's Lynn Hopton Davis and Greg Davis Professor of Chemistry at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering. The paper was published in the journal Nature. "By using electrochemistry to convert captured carbon into products with established markets, we provide new pathways to improving these economics, as well as a more sustainable source for the industrial chemicals that we still need." "Carbon capture is feasible today from a technical point of view, but not yet from an economic point of view," Sargent said. The innovation, which uses a novel catalyst created in the lab of professor Ted Sargent, could spur new interest in carbon capture and storage. Now, Northwestern University researchers have worked with an international team of collaborators to create acetic acid out of carbon monoxide derived from captured carbon.
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