Boron has taken on multiple jobs, including light harvester, photothermal converter, hydrogen generator, and catalyst, to convert CO2 into valuable chemicals.
Scientists around the world are working to develop ways to efficiently convert CO2 into a useful carbon source for the production of fuels and chemicals. The ideal route for this conversion corresponds with the second step of photosynthesis, in which sunlight aids the reduction of CO2. Despite decades of research, however, existing processes are still too inefficient. The low efficiency, explains Jinhua Ye, an adjunct professor of chemical sciences and engineering at Hokkaido Univ. in Japan, is largely due to the insufficient utilization of solar light, the high energy barrier for CO2 activation, and the sluggish kinetics of the multiple electron- and proton-transfer processes.
Ye and her colleagues from Hokkaido Univ., the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) in...
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