{"id":206242,"date":"2023-11-01T07:32:54","date_gmt":"2023-11-01T11:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=206242"},"modified":"2023-11-16T12:03:44","modified_gmt":"2023-11-16T17:03:44","slug":"laying-the-foundation-for-carbon-dioxide-reduction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2023\/11\/laying-the-foundation-for-carbon-dioxide-reduction\/","title":{"rendered":"Laying the Foundation for Carbon Dioxide Reduction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continuing UConn\u2019s commitment to climate change mitigation, a team of researchers is applying groundbreaking techniques to convert carbon dioxide emissions into renewable energy sources.<\/p>\n

The researchers\u2019 findings were recently published the Royal Society of Chemistry\u2019s esteemed Energy and Environmental Science Journal.<\/p>\n

Environmental engineering professor Baikun Li led a 12-person interdisciplinary team exploring the process of electrochemical CO2 reduction. In addition to supporting UConn\u2019s priority research goal of climate change mitigation, it also achieved an interdisciplinary collaboration comprised of several schools and colleges. The effort featured faculty and grad students from environmental engineering, materials science and engineering, electrical and computer engineering, chemistry, and more.<\/u><\/p>\n

\u201cClimate change is one of the world\u2019s most pressing challenges,\u201d says Pamir Alpay, UConn\u2019s Vice President for Research, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship and a co-author on the manuscript whose group worked on the atomistic modeling of the surface reactions of catalytic processes.\u00a0\u201cThis study works to reduce our carbon footprint through carefully designed experimental work with sophisticated multi-scale modeling. \u201cThe resulting reduction in carbon dioxide benefits our planet and exemplifies UConn\u2019s research priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
The interdisciplinary team of 12 UConn researchers explored the process of electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Each year, the extraction and burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than natural processes can remove. The carbon dioxide can remain for thousands of years, trapping heat and warming the Earth\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n

In 2019, Li and the team set out to understand the fundamental mechanisms of CO2 reduction. Electrochemical CO2 reduction is the conversion of carbon dioxide into a hydrocarbon fuel through a chemical reaction. It represents a future possibility where humans could generate gasoline, aviation fuel, and other useful substances using carbon dioxide captured from the air \u2014 reducing greenhouse gas emissions while providing a sustainable energy source.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we really want to achieve in the future is the complete cycle of carbon,\u201d says Xingyu Wang, an environmental engineering Ph.D. student who worked on the team. \u201cOne of the biggest questions we aim to explore is, \u2018How can we utilize the carbon dioxide that already exists in the atmosphere without exploiting existing resources here on Earth?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a question that many research studies aim to answer. But few break down electrochemical CO2 reduction to the most fundamental level: the reaction.<\/p>\n

The chemical reaction that converts CO2 gas into other chemical feedstocks happens under the action of a metal catalyst. Polymers bonded to the surface of the catalyst help stabilize and promote the reaction by keeping metal nanoparticles in place.<\/p>\n

For example, Li says that copper is a well-known catalyst for CO2 reduction, but it does not absorb CO2 easily. By coating the surface of the copper with a polymer called polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), the team was able to change the polarity of the surface and improve CO2 gas absorption.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our study, we laid the foundation for the exploration of other polymers,\u201d says Li. \u201cLater on, other researchers can use the fundamental modeling in our work to study other molecule polymers based on what we have discovered so far.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another value of this study is its cost effectiveness. CO2 reduction can be achieved through expensive manufacturing pathways or relatively simple methods like this one, says Wang.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur study shows that we do not need to rely on the most expensive methods. We can achieve the same goal through this mixture of organic and inorganic material,\u201d Wang says.<\/p>\n

The team is one of many interdisciplinary collaborations across UConn that addess climate change mitigation and seek sustainable fuel sources. Li and her team have won a Convergence Award for Research in Interdisciplinary Centers (CARIC) for their work across quantum technology and climate change. The team is working with the Physics Department to develop an animation of the process for educational purposes within the industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe broad impact of this methodology doesn\u2019t only apply to CO2 reduction,” Li says. \u201cIt has countless applications, but we used CO2 reduction as an example of how we can use quantum level modeling for potential future research.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A team of UConn researchers is working to achieve carbon neutrality through a process called electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":207114,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2429,1805,1866,2226,2460,2076,2387,2235,2227],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2381],"class_list":["post-206242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-awards-scholarships","category-climate-change","category-engr","category-clas","category-faculty","category-research","category-sustainability","category-today-homepage","category-uconn-edu-homepage","series-climate-change"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 12:10:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/166"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206242"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206403,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206242\/revisions\/206403"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/207114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206242"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=206242"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=206242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}