Paul Bass photo
Chemistry prof Nilay Hazari at WNHH FM.
In a Prospect Street chemistry lab, Nilay Hazari and his colleagues found a new way to help green the planet.
How it works...
They invented a way to turn carbon dioxide into a chemical compound called formate. So it can be used to make dyes or preservatives instead of being released into the air.
Hazari chairs Yale’s chemistry department. He and colleague James Mayer have published a study about their breakthrough, which stemmed from years of work they’ve been doing on a federal grant to support research into using sunlight to make carbon dioxide into fuels.
In a conversation Thursday on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program, Hazari walked listeners through the steps Hazari, Mayer and their grad students took to produce the formate.
Mayer and his students made a porous silicon wafer. Hazari and his students prepared a “metal catalyst system” based on manganese. They dissolved the manganese complex to create a solution that they then put in contact with the wafer. When the composite comprising the manganese complex and porous silicon was exposed to sunlight, carbon dioxide, and a small amount of electricity, the carbon dioxide was converted to formate.
“This is a stepping stone for trying to convert carbon dioxide into chemicals that you might hear more about, things like methanol,” said Hazari, who is 43 and grew up in Melbourne, Australia. “The way the scientific endeavor works is, you sometimes have a smaller goal which is going to lead towards a larger goal — the larger goal being able to make more valuable chemicals from carbon dioxide.”
Next steps will involve trying to improve the efficiency of formate generation so less electricity is used. The hope is that within decades — yes, the scientific process takes time! — this will all lead to one of many new ways that the carbon dioxide produced by, say, a steel factory will go directly into useful new products rather than contributing to global warming. And research like this will enable society to produce more chemicals without using fossil fuels.
The Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture sponsored the research along with an Energy Innovation Hub funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. Xiaofan Jia and Young Hyun Hong also served as lead authors of the study.
Click on the below video to watch Hazari explain his team’s breakthrough study, in plain language even the interviewer can understand; and when are the environmentally best times to do your laundry. Click here to subscribe or here to listen to other episodes of “Dateline New Haven.”