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Why trap and sequester CO2 for long-term storage if the greenhouse gas can be converted to valuable carbon compounds? Driven by that thinking, researchers have identified numerous conversion strategies, including electrochemically reducing CO2 to CO, which is a feedstock used to make synthetic fuels and other products. Several metals show moderate promise as electroreduction catalysts. But without a detailed understanding of the relationship between a catalyst’s structure and function, it’s difficult to tailor catalysts and improve their performance. For nanoparticulate gold, Brown University’s Andrew A. Peterson, Shouheng Sun, and coworkers have deduced a key piece of that relationship. The team reports that among various-sized gold particles, 8-nm gold particles are exceptionally good CO2 reduction catalysts (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, DOI: 10.1021/ja409445p). And as a result of their quantum mechanical analysis, the researchers know why: Edge sites between adjacent crystal faces stabilize key carbon-based reduction intermediates, while corner sites drive competing reactions. Crystal growth energetics cause 8-nm particles to exhibit an optimum ratio of those sites, the team reports.
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