The team is led by RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. The research was conducted at RMIT’s MicroNano Research Facility and the RMIT Microscopy and Microanalysis Facility, with lead investigator, Honorary RMIT and ARC Laureate Fellow, Professor Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh (now UNSW). The collaboration involved researchers from Germany (University of Munster), China (Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics), the US (North Carolina State University) and Australia (UNSW, University of Wollongong, Monash University, QUT). Current technologies for and storage focus on carbon capture compressing CO2 into a liquid form, transporting it to a suitable site and injecting it underground.
Using liquid metals as a catalyst produce a different result and this can be done at room temperature. Even more, lead author Dr Dorna Esrafilzadeh said the carbon produced by the technique could also be used as an electrode and the process also produces synthetic fuel which could also have industrial applications. RMIT researcher Dr Torben Daeneke said: “While we can’t literally turn back time, turning carbon dioxide back into coal and burying it back in the ground is a bit like rewinding the emissions clock.” The process is efficient and scalable. This is a hope to eliminate CO2 in excess in the battle to combat the climat changes.
