Professor Jingguang Chen publishes a paper in Science regarding the catalytic active sites for the conversion of CO2 to methanol

Prof. Jingguang Chen and his collaborators, Brookhaven National Laboratory staff scientists Dr. Ping Liu and Dr. Jose Rodriguez, recently published a paper in Science regarding the catalytic active sites for the conversion of CO₂ to methanol [Science, 355 (2017) 1296-1299]. Capturing carbon dioxide (CO₂) and converting it to useful chemicals such as methanol could reduce both CO₂ emission and the dependence on petroleum products. Currently the leading catalyst is based on Copper-Zinc (Cu-Zn) supported on alumna oxides. However, there is a longstanding debate about exactly which catalytic components take part in the chemical reactions. Using a combination of experiments and computational modeling studies, the research team has clearly identified the ZnO/Cu interface as the “active sites” for converting CO₂ to methanol. These results should provide guiding principles in designing more efficient catalysts for this important reaction.  The first author of the paper is Dr. Shyam Kattel, who is a postdoctoral fellow co-advised by Prof. Chen and Dr. Liu.