Electron-catalytic conversion of carbon dioxide into formaldehyde and methanol

Abstract

Since the mid-19th century, there has been a steady increase in the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, leading to global warming due to the greenhouse effect. CO2 can be utilized to obtain a large number of organic compounds. The formation of these compounds depends on the methods of CO2 processing, which include biological, thermal conversion, photochemical, and plasma methods. Most of these methods involve the use of catalysts. One of the plasma methods is the electron-catalytic method using a barrier discharge. Studies on the catalytic conversion of CO2 into methanol and formaldehyde were carried out on a laboratory setup consisting of two sources of low-temperature plasma – dischargers, one of which contains a heterogeneous catalyst. Water vapor was used as the source of hydrogen. The formation of methanol and formaldehyde was investigated under different operating modes of the setup. The effect of sample aging for a day was determined. As a result, there is an increase in the concentration of methanol in the sample from 5.8% to 49.74% and formaldehyde from 4.1% to 50.01% for different operating modes of the setup. The observed results are explained by a sharp increase in the yield of oxygen-containing radicals and , which are formed by the interaction of ozone, formed from CO2 in the discharge zone, with aqueous solutions.