{"id":176289,"date":"2026-03-01T07:22:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T06:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=176289"},"modified":"2026-04-24T16:40:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T14:40:15","slug":"turning-vibrations-into-value-a-new-catalyst-converts-co2-into-useful-co","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/turning-vibrations-into-value-a-new-catalyst-converts-co2-into-useful-co\/","title":{"rendered":"Turning vibrations into value – a new catalyst converts CO2 into useful CO"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

Researchers at The University of Osaka have developed a catalyst that uses vibrational energy to convert carbon dioxide (CO2<\/sub>) into carbon monoxide (CO), an important industrial feedstock. The work demonstrates a new piezocatalytic route for CO2<\/sub>\u00a0conversion under mild conditions – at low temperature and ambient pressure, offering a potential path toward future low-energy carbon recycling technologies.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CO2<\/sub> emissions are a major driver of global warming, and technologies that convert CO2<\/sub> from a waste product into a useful carbon resource are becoming increasingly important for achieving carbon neutrality. CO is a useful product of CO2<\/sub> reduction, but conventional production methods require high temperatures and substantial energy input. A promising alternative is to use catalysts that harness mechanical energy, such as vibration, to drive chemical reactions under mild conditions, although their efficiency and product selectivity for CO2<\/sub> conversion have remained limited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Schematic
Fig. 1: Schematic images of piezocatalytic CO2<\/sub> reduction over Ni single-atom anchored on N-doped carbon deposited on BaTiO3<\/sub>. \u00a9 Yoshifumi Kondo and Tohru Sekino from J. Mater. Chem. A, 2026, 14, 6858.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The research team designed a catalyst based on barium titanate (BaTiO3<\/sub>), a piezoelectric material that generates electric charges under mechanical stimulation. By depositing nitrogen-doped carbon containing atomically dispersed nickel on BaTiO3 nanocubes, the researchers created a material that efficiently reduced CO2<\/sub> to CO under ultrasonic vibration at room temperature and ambient pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In five hours of sonication, the new catalyst produced 377 mmol g\u22121 of CO, compared with 123 mmol g\u22121 for pristine BaTiO3<\/sub>, corresponding to a 3.1-fold improvement. No H2, CH4, or HCOOH were detected as carbon-reduction products under the tested conditions, indicating almost 100% selectivity for CO among the detected carbon products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study also clarified why the catalyst performed so well. The nitrogen-doped carbon helped promote charge separation and transfer, while the isolated nickel single-atom sites acted as highly active centers for CO2<\/sub> reduction. Structural analysis showed that the nickel atoms were atomically dispersed in a Ni-N4 configuration within the carbon layer. The catalyst also remained stable over repeated cycles, suggesting that the nickel sites were firmly anchored during operation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The work provides a new design strategy for combining piezoelectric materials with single-atom catalytic sites, opening a possible path toward sustainable CO2<\/sub> conversion using underutilized mechanical energy. Dr. Yoshifumi Kondo, senior author of the study, commented, \u201cEstablishing technologies to recycle industrially emitted CO2<\/sub> is essential for achieving carbon neutrality. In this work, we clarified part of the design guideline for reaction-active sites in piezocatalytic CO2<\/sub> reduction. Going forward, we hope to develop new low-energy CO2<\/sub> conversion methods that make use of underutilized energy, such as mechanical vibration and waste heat.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Fig.
Fig. 2 : CO production rates of developed catalysts under ultrasonic vibration. \u00a9 Yoshifumi Kondo, Tohru Sekino<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Original Publication<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Title:\u00a0<\/strong>Ni single-atom doped N-doped carbon deposited on BaTiO3<\/sub>\u00a0for efficient piezocatalytic CO2<\/sub>\u00a0reduction; Journal:\u00a0<\/strong>Journal of Materials Chemistry A<\/em>; Authors:\u00a0<\/strong>Jing Cao, Yoshifumi Kondo, Yeongjun Seo, Tomoyo Goto, and Tohru Sekino; DOI:\u00a0<\/strong>10.1039\/D5TA09053A<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Funded by:<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • Japan Society for the Promotion of Science<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Kazuchika Okura Memorial Foundation<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Tokuyama Science Foundation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
    <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Researchers at The University of Osaka have developed a catalyst that uses vibrational energy to convert carbon dioxide (CO2) into carbon monoxide (CO), an important industrial feedstock. The work demonstrates a new piezocatalytic route for CO2\u00a0conversion under mild conditions – at low temperature and ambient pressure, offering a potential path toward future low-energy carbon recycling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":176297,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"Single-atom nickel sites on a vibration-responsive material boosted CO2-to-CO conversion under ultrasonic vibration","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[10744,24190,15152,10416,10743],"supplier":[7804,23960,15695,27882],"class_list":["post-176289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-carboncapture","tag-carbonemissions","tag-catalyst","tag-circulareconomy","tag-useco2","supplier-jsps","supplier-ministry-of-education-culture-sports-science-and-technology-mext-japan","supplier-osaka-university","supplier-tokuyama-science-foundation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176289","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\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176289"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176310,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176289\/revisions\/176310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176289"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=176289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}