催化剂可以改良通过二氧化碳生产很有前景的可再生能源燃料甲醇的方法。目前的方法需要高压或产生不良副产品一氧化碳。

加利福尼亚斯坦福大学Jens Nørskov和同事模拟CO₂化学还原成甲醇的环境压力并确定镍–镓基化合物作为催化剂。

研究人员合成并测试了一系列的催化剂，发现与传统催化剂相比，Ni₅Ga₃在同样环境压力下能产生相同或更大量的甲醇，同时也产生较少CO。

该催化剂可用于制造甲醇作为燃料，例如，燃料电池，作者说。（编译：中国科学院成都生物研究所 王芋华，王海燕）

Discovery of a Ni-Ga catalyst for carbon dioxide reduction to methanol

Abstract  The use of methanol as a fuel and chemical feedstock could become very important in the development of a more sustainable society if methanol could be efficiently obtained from the direct reduction of CO₂ using solar-generated hydrogen. If hydrogen production is to be decentralized, small-scale CO₂ reduction devices are required that operate at low pressures. Here, we report the discovery of a Ni-Ga catalyst that reduces CO₂ to methanol at ambient pressure. The catalyst was identified through a descriptor-based analysis of the process and the use of computational methods to identify Ni-Ga intermetallic compounds as stable candidates with good activity. We synthesized and tested a series of catalysts and found that Ni₅Ga₃ is particularly active and selective. Comparison with conventional Cu/ZnO/Al₂O₃ catalysts revealed the same or better methanol synthesis activity, as well as considerably lower production of CO. We suggest that this is a first step towards the development of small-scale low-pressure devices for CO₂ reduction to methanol.

原文链接：http://www.nature.com/nchem/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nchem.1873.html