太阳能应用新突破：将二氧化碳转化为燃料

据油价网6月11日报道，植物及其将光和空气转化为燃料的巧妙方式，已为许多科学家带来了灵感。如今，光合作用为解决我们的二氧化碳问题奠定了基础。瑞典林雪平大学（Swedish Linkping University）的研究人员发现了一种利用太阳能将二氧化碳转化为其他化学物质作为燃料的方法。他们设计了一种称之为光电极的东西，这种光电极覆盖在一层石墨烯上，石墨烯是一种被广为宣传的材料，基本上就是一层碳原子，它能捕获太阳能并产生电荷载体。接下来，它们将二氧化碳和水转化为甲烷、一氧化碳和甲酸。

这是最新迹象，表明正在努力寻找利用二氧化碳的方法，而二氧化碳是许多环境倡议甚至《巴黎协定》本身的目标。而且这种动力正在加快，技术突破的可能性可能会持续下去。

例如，今年早些时候，美国国家可再生能源实验室和南加州大学宣布，他们已经制造出一种新型催化剂，可以使氢化——一种比将二氧化碳转化为碳氢化合物更便宜的过程。

他们的催化剂利用纳米技术添加了碳化钼的纳米颗粒。碳化钼是一种金属和碳的化合物，具有广泛的应用范围，其中包括将二氧化碳转化为一氧化碳以用于化学生产，以及转化为碳氢化合物。

在所有寻求利用我们在大气中释放的二氧化碳的项目中，成本是一个重要的考虑因素。例如，碳捕获技术的成本昂贵，许多人认为，这种技术永远也负担不起，不可能成为大规模解决全球排放问题的合理方法。

原文如下：

New Solar Breakthrough Turns Carbon Dioxide Into Fuel

Plants and their ingenious way of turning light and air into fuel have been an inspiration for many scientists. Now, photosynthesis has made the basis for a possible solution to our carbon dioxide problem. Researchers from the Swedish Link?ping University have found a way to use solar power to convert carbon dioxide into other chemicals for use as a fuel. They did this by devising what they called a photoelectrode covered in a layer of graphene—the much-hyped material that is basically a single layer of carbon atoms—which captures solar energy and creates charge carriers. Next, they convert carbon dioxide and water into methane, carbon monoxide, and formic acid.

This is the latest sign that a drive is underway to find ways to utilize the carbon dioxide that is the target of so many environmental initiatives and even the Paris Agreement itself. And this drive is gathering pace, with breakthroughs likely to keep coming.

Earlier this year, for example, the National Renewable Energy Lab and the University of Southern California announced they had made a new sort of catalyst that could make hydrogenation—a process than can turn carbon dioxide into hydrocarbons—cheaper.

Their catalyst utilized nanotechnology to add nanoparticles of molybdenum carbide—a compound featuring a metal and carbon that has an extensive range of applications, among them the conversion of carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide to be used in chemicals production, and into hydrocarbons.

Cost is an essential consideration in all projects seeking to make use of the carbon dioxide that we release in the atmosphere instead of just leaving it there and worrying about it. Carbon capture technology is notoriously expensive, for example, and many believe it would never become affordable enough to make sense as a large-scale solution to the world's emissions problem.