Recently, the light-driven carbon neutralization research team has made a breakthrough in the field of photothermal high-purity gas preparation. Related work "High-Purity Carbon Monoxide Production via Photothermal Formic Acid Decomposition over Fluorite ZrO2 "was published in Nature Catalysis with Hebei University as the first unit (IF=42.8, 2024). Dr. Li Yaguang is the first and corresponding author of the paper, Professor Ye Jinhua and Researcher Luo Yanhong from the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences are the co-corresponding authors, and doctoral student Liu Bang and Dr. Yuan Dachao from Agricultural University of Hebei are the co-first authors.

Ultra-high purity carbon monoxide (CO) is a special gas widely needed in high-tech industries such as integrated circuit manufacturing. Traditional high-purity CO preparation relies heavily on advanced gas separation technology, resulting in environmental pollution and high costs, and heavily relies on foreign imports. In order to break through the "jam neck" problem of high-purity CO preparation, Li Yaguang, Ye Jinhua and Luo Yanhong jointly proposed a new high-purity CO preparation route of "photothermal catalytic formic acid cracking". Through the combination of theory and experiment, it is found that zirconia with fluorite structure can efficiently catalyze the cracking of formic acid to produce CO, and block the production of impurity gas, and achieve the goal of direct production of high purity CO. Coupled with a photothermal catalytic unit, the system can produce more than 1,538 liters/square meters of high-purity CO per day, not only showing great potential for industrialization, but also opening a new era in the production of high-purity gases from green energy. In the future, the research of the Hebei University team may lead the industrial revolution of high-purity gas preparation and contribute to the independent innovation of energy and science and technology of the country.

The research work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province, the Department of Education of Hebei Province, the Interdisciplinary Project of Hebei University, the Life Science and Green Development Research Institute of Hebei University, and the Public Testing Center of the College of Physical Science and Technology of Hebei University.

Document link：https://www.nature.com/articles/s41929-024-01249-7