Carbon dioxide in our atmosphere traps heat and causes climate change. Scientists are looking for ways to capture this gas and make it useful. One method is CO2 electroreduction, which uses electricity to change pollution into chemicals like ethanol. However, this reaction needs a special liquid, called an electrolyte, to work. The best liquid should absorb a lot of carbon dioxide and move it fast. It also needs to handle strong electrical currents. Finding this liquid is very hard. Testing millions of liquids in a lab would take many years.
A research team from Stony Brook University has found a faster way. They developed a new computer method using artificial intelligence, chemical modeling, and physics. The program analyzed 1.3 million possible liquids. It found six liquids that had never been tested for this purpose. These liquids are good at absorbing and moving carbon dioxide. The team also learned what makes a molecule work well for this process. Their findings were published in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science.
Stony Brook University is a research university in New York. The department chair, Dilip Gersappe, said this work shows how their department uses new computer methods and science to solve big problems. The researchers shared their methods and data on a public platform called COSMIC. This allows scientists worldwide to use their work. Gersappe believes this discovery will speed up technology that uses carbon and help clean energy researchers.