"Diamonds from the sky." Chemists get carbon nanofibres from air (from CO2)

A team of chemists from George Washington University, under the leadership of Professor Stuart Licht, has developed a technology for the cost-effective conversion of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO ₂ ) directly into expensive carbon nanofibers, which are needed for the production of consumer goods and industrial products.

The process technology is really very cheap: the process goes by itself, receiving energy from a solar installation. Energy costs for production ($ 1000 per tonne, that is, a dollar per kilogram) are several hundred times lower than the current market value of the product. And most importantly, the technique has already been tested: the prototype is assembled and successfully works.

Carbon nanofibres are used in the production of high-strength carbon composites, from which bodies of sports cars and airplane bodies, wind turbines, high-quality sports equipment are made: bicycle frames, tennis racket handles and much more. The only problem is that carbon composites have so far been very expensive, so the extraction of carbon dioxide from the air can make a real revolution in the industry.

Professor Licht calls the created technology “Diamonds from the Sky”.

Carbon nanofibers are produced using electrolytic synthesis. The process consists of several stages.

1. A power plant from a concentrator and a solar cell generates electricity and simultaneously heats the electrolytic cell.

2. CO ₂turns into a carbonate melt at a temperature of 750 ° C.

3. Air from the atmosphere is added to the electrolytic cell, and voltage is applied to the electrodes of the cell. The electrodes are made of nickel and steel.

4. Under the influence of a temperature of 750 ° C and an electric current of less than 1 volt, CO ₂ decomposes into atoms.

5. Carbon nanofibers are formed on a steel electrode, from where they can be removed.

Interestingly, such a production has a pleasant side effect: you can slightly reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the air and reduce the greenhouse effect, which leads to the heating of the planet according to the model of Venus.

Professor Licht calculated that if a power plant of this type covers 10% of the Sahara desert, then in ten years it is possible to return the percentage of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to a pre-industrial level.

On August 19, 2015, the authors presented their work at the 250th meeting of the American Chemical Society.

Based on materials from the American Chemical Society