{"id":165922,"date":"2025-07-29T07:37:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T05:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=165922"},"modified":"2025-07-22T15:00:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T13:00:07","slug":"semiconductors-show-promise-for-efficient-carbon-capture-and-utilization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/semiconductors-show-promise-for-efficient-carbon-capture-and-utilization\/","title":{"rendered":"Semiconductors show promise for efficient carbon capture and utilization"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

A new palladium-loaded amorphous InGaZnOx<\/sub>\u00a0(a-IGZO) catalyst achieved over 91% selectivity when converting carbon dioxide to methanol, report researchers from Japan. Unlike traditional catalysts, this system leverages the electronic properties of semiconductors to generate all the species necessary for the conversion reaction. This study demonstrates novel design principles for sustainable catalysis based on electronic structure engineering.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Designing Semiconductor-based Catalysts for Methanol (CH3<\/sub>OH) Production<\/h3>\n\n\n
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CO2<\/sub>\u00a0Conversion to Methanol by Hydrogen Species on n-Type Oxide Semiconductors<\/a>
Fukumoto\u00a0et al<\/em>. (2025) |\u00a0Journal of the American Chemical Society<\/em>\u00a0| 10.1021\/jacs.5c03910 \u00a9 Institute of Science Tokyo<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The global push for carbon neutrality hinges on our ability to not just capture carbon dioxide (CO2<\/sub>), but also transform it into valuable resources. One of the most promising avenues is converting CO2<\/sub>\u00a0into methanol (CH3<\/sub>OH), a key building block in the chemical industry and a potential clean energy carrier in a hydrogen-based economy. While this route offers a compelling pathway for reducing greenhouse gas emissions while creating value, its implementation still faces technical challenges.

Conventional catalysts for CO2<\/sub>-to-CH3<\/sub>OH conversion, such as those based on copper-zinc oxide systems, suffer from poor selectivity. They tend to produce undesirable carbon monoxide (CO) as a byproduct, which lowers CH3<\/sub>OH yield and undermines both efficiency and environmental benefits. This has prompted researchers to explore strategies beyond conventional catalyst design, leveraging the intrinsic electronic properties of semiconductor materials.

In a recent study, a research team led by Professor Hideo Hosono from the MDX Research Center for Element Strategy at Institute of Science Tokyo (Science Tokyo), Japan, presents a novel approach to overcome current limitations. Their findings, which were made available online on June 16, 2025 and published in Volume 147, Issue 26 of the\u00a0Journal of the American Chemical Society<\/em><\/a>\u00a0on July 02, 2025, reveal how n-type oxide semiconductors can be engineered into highly efficient catalysts for CO2<\/sub>-to-CH3<\/sub>OH conversion. This work was co-authored by Professor Masaaki Kitano, and Assistant Professor Masatake Tsuji, also from Science Tokyo, and conducted in collaboration with Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation.

The researchers focused on amorphous indium-based oxides, particularly a-InGaZnOx<\/sub>\u00a0(a-IGZO), which is widely used as a semiconductor to drive pixels in display technology. They synthesized fine powders of these oxides to maximize their surface area\u2014a crucial factor for catalytic activity. Then, the team evaluated the catalytic performance of the synthesized materials, both independently and when loaded with palladium (Pd) nanoparticles.\u00a0

The key breakthrough came from understanding how the electronic structure of these semiconductor catalysts drives the desired conversion reaction. Unlike traditional catalysts that rely primarily on surface chemistry, the a-IGZO system features unique electronic properties. Specifically, its conduction band minimum is aligned with the so-called \u2018universal hydrogen charge transition level (UHCTL),\u2019 which is the energy level in a semiconductor where H+ and H\u2212 ions are equally stable. UHCTL is located at\u00a0~<\/sup>4.5eV from the vacuum level.

This alignment allows the catalyst to generate both positively and negatively charged hydrogen species simultaneously, which are essential for the multi-step process of converting CO2<\/sub>\u00a0into CH3<\/sub>OH. Moreover, the Pd nanoparticles serve as suppliers of hydrogen, dissociating hydrogen molecules into atomic hydrogen(H0<\/sup>) and transferring them to the semiconductor surface. High carrier concentration in oxide semiconductors facilitates H0<\/sup>\u00a0tunneling through the Schottky barrier of the Pd\/semiconductor interface.

Thanks to these mechanisms, the Pd-loaded a-IGZO catalyst achieved over 91% selectivity for CH3<\/sub>OH production\u2014a notable improvement over conventional systems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cOur work shows that realization of bipolar state (H+<\/sup>\u00a0and H\u2212<\/sup>\u00a0) of hydron is a key to efficient and highly selective methanol synthesis from CO2<\/sub>, and the design principle for the catalyst is to choose n-type oxide semiconductors with conduction band minimum close to UHCTL, and high carrier concentration,\u201d says Hosono<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Overall, the proposed semiconductor-based approach could mark a paradigm shift in catalyst design, moving from traditional strategies focused on surface chemistry to new ones based on electronic structure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cOur findings not only demonstrate the effectiveness of utilizing electrons, holes, hydrogen species, and their dynamics within semiconductors for CO2<\/sub>\u00a0hydrogenation, but also suggest new design guidelines for chemical devices such as catalysts and batteries,\u201d concludes Hosono<\/strong>. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

These findings will hopefully accelerate the development of more efficient carbon capture and utilization technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reference<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Authors:Kazuki Fukumoto1<\/sup>, Hideto Tsuji1<\/sup>*, Masatake Tsuji2<\/sup>, Masakazu Koike1<\/sup>, Kohei Takatani1<\/sup>, Masahiko Shimizu1<\/sup>, Masaaki Kitano2<\/sup>, and Hideo Hosono2<\/sup>*Title:CO2<\/sub> Conversion to Methanol by Hydrogen Species on n-Type Oxide SemiconductorsJournal:Journal of the American Chemical Society<\/em>DOI\uff1a10.1021\/jacs.5c03910<\/a>Affiliations:1<\/sup>Science & Innovation Center, Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, Japan
2<\/sup>MDX Research Center for Element Strategy, Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Corresponding authors<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new palladium-loaded amorphous InGaZnOx\u00a0(a-IGZO) catalyst achieved over 91% selectivity when converting carbon dioxide to methanol, report researchers from Japan. Unlike traditional catalysts, this system leverages the electronic properties of semiconductors to generate all the species necessary for the conversion reaction. This study demonstrates novel design principles for sustainable catalysis based on electronic structure engineering. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":165924,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"Innovative catalyst design enables the selective conversion of carbon dioxide into methanol","footnotes":""},"categories":[5571],"tags":[10744,10416,20596,10408,10630,13718,10743],"supplier":[1143,26710,20400,1009],"class_list":["post-165922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-co2-based","tag-carboncapture","tag-circulareconomy","tag-electrocatalysis","tag-greenchemistry","tag-hydrogen","tag-methanol","tag-useco2","supplier-american-chemical-society-acs","supplier-institute-of-science-tokyo","supplier-journal-of-the-american-chemical-society-jacs","supplier-mitsubishi-chemical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/114"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165922"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=165922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}