Indian Scientists Find Way To Capture CO2 And Turn It Into Eco-Friendly Methane

Indian scientists have developed an affordable metal-free catalyst that can convert carbon dioxide to methane by simply absorbing visible light.

Prof. Tapas. K. Maji, Dr Soumitra Barman, Dr Ashish Singh and Faruk Ahamed Rahimi

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The research that¡¯s currently ongoing would help reduce CO2 into value-added products like methane where it can be used for a clean fuel as well as applications in fuel cells as a hydrogen carrier.

CO2 reduction can be done in a variety of ways such as photochemical, electrochemical, photoelectrochemical, photothermal etc. The photochemical process makes use of solar energy as a renewable source.

However, for a photo-catalyst to convert CO2 into other applications, you need light-harvesting property, charge carrier, separation proficiency and the presence of a proper electronically aligned conduction band, so the endeavour to turn carbon dioxide into methane selectively and effectively is a challenging endeavour. Only some specific catalysts are able to do so and most of them contain metal counterparts that are toxic and expensive.

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To overcome this, researchers from Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research -- an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India have created a metal-free porous organic polymer that absorbs visible light to catalyse the CO2 reduction reaction, turning it into methane.

They¡¯ve developed a donor-acceptor assembly using C-C coupling to form a stable conjugated microporous organic polymer that was used as a heterogeneous catalyst. The keto group present in phenanthraquinone moiety performed as a catalytic site in contrast with other conventional metal-based catalysts where the metal counterpart carries out the CO2 reduction reaction.

Representational Image Via PIB

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During the catalysis process, the first chemical dubbed conjugated microporous polymer could update carbon dioxide on its surface due to its high CO2 intake capability at room temperature and turning it into methane.

The push-pull effect between the electron-rich donor and the electron-deficient acceptor caused efficient electron-hole separation, enhancing electron transfer kinetics and assisting in efficient catalysis.

This could soon offer a new way to assemble carbon capture and reduction based on efficient porous heterogeneous catalysts. Extracted methane can also act as a replacement for coal for electricity generation as week as offering constant supply for reinforcing intermittent renewable generators.

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