Scientists Create Molecular 'Leaf' That Stores Solar Power Without Solar Panels

Carbon dioxide gas into Earth's atmosphere is responsible for the greenhouse effect. But the researcher from Indiana University has achieved a new milestone in the quest to recycle carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere into carbon-neutral fuels and others materials.

According to Science Daily, the chemists have engineered a molecule that uses light or electricity to convert the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide. This is a carbon-neutral fuel source more efficiently than any other method of "carbon reduction".

Indiana University lead researcher Liang-Shi-Li reported that burning fuel such as carbon monoxide produces carbon dioxide and releases energy. Turning back carbon dioxide into fuel requires at least the same amount of energy.

Indiana University has stated that, the molecule, a nanographene rhenium complex connected via an organic compound known as bipyridine. This triggers a highly efficient reaction that converts carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide. The ability to efficiently and exclusively create carbon monoxide is very positive due to the molecule's versatility.

The secret to the molecule's efficiency is nanographene. This is a nanometre-scale piece of graphite, a common form of carbon that absorbs a large amount of sunlight.

Scientists from the Indiana University said that bipyridine-metal complexes have long been studied to reduce carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide with sunlight. But these molecules can use only a tiny sliver of the light in sunlight, which is invisible in the sunlight.

Li reported that the molecules act as two-part systems: a nanographene "energy collector" that absorbs energy from sunlight and an atomic rhenium "engine" that produces carbon monoxide. The energy collector drives a flow of electrons that repeatedly binds and converts the normally stable carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide.

However, Li has a plan to make the molecule more powerful, including making it longer and survive in a non-liquid form. The full research process is reported in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.