Tomsk scientists find way to reduce greenhouse effect

It is worth mentioning that the development proved to be more effective and cheaper than analogues. Carbon dioxide is a pollutant and is formed as a by-product of many industrial processes. And the increase of its concentration in the atmosphere is the main cause of the greenhouse effect. This problem can be solved by recycling carbon dioxide into a useful product.

"TPU scientists together with their colleagues from Zhejiang University (China) have synthesized an effective catalyst based on carbon aerogel for industry. It will reduce carbon monoxide emissions from many industrial processes and recycle it into a useful product. The catalyst will be more efficient and cheaper to produce compared to existing analogues", the report specifies.

The produced catalyst will make it possible to transform carbon dioxide into fuel - precious metal. Usually its analogues are created on the base of precious metals, they are either expensive or exposed to corrosion, and because of that they quickly lose their properties. Aerogel does not have these disadvantages.

"The catalyst is a porous aerogel in which active centers are formed, where the reaction will take place. Carbon doped with nitrogen is usually used for these reactions. But these catalysts have a disadvantage - they are non-selective, that is, in addition to the reduction of carbon dioxide, they trigger other chemical reactions that lead to unnecessary byproducts and reduce the efficiency of the process. We used a combination of nitrogen and phosphorus in the aerogel, which allowed it to efficiently trigger exactly the reaction we needed," said TPU Research School of Chemical and Biomedical Technologies professor Raul Rodriguez.