Italian technology plast / October 2026 |
Carbon dioxide is best known as one of the main gases responsible for climate change. However, in the laboratory, it can also become a resource for developing safer and more sustainable chemical processes. This is demonstrated by an international study published in Science, to which the Politecnico di Milano and the‘ Giulio Natta’ Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering contributed. The research opens up a new perspective on the use of CO 2
: not only as a source of carbon, as is already the case in many lines of research, but also as a source of oxygen for obtaining organic molecules of industrial interest. The result concerns a very important transformation in organic chemistry: the controlled cleavage of carboncarbon double bonds found in alkenes. Alkenes are compounds widely used as starting points for producing chemical intermediates, pharmaceuticals and advanced materials. Traditionally, highly reactive oxidising agents, such as ozone, or heavy metals and other reagents that can pose safety risks, incur high costs and generate waste, are used to carry out this type of reaction. The new method, however, utilises CO 2 as an oxygen donor, together with visible light and an iron-based catalyst. The reaction takes place at room temperature and atmospheric pressure.
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HOW IT WORKS At the heart of the process is a heterogeneous catalyst containing isolated iron atoms on carbon nitride. When illuminated, the catalyst activates CO₂, a molecule that is normally very stable, and transfers its oxygen atoms to the alkenes. In this way, it is possible to produce ketones and carboxylic acids, two families of compounds that are very important for chemical synthesis. The method has been tested on 45 different compounds, demonstrating good selectivity even in the presence of sensitive chemical groups, which often require additional protection steps in traditional processes.‘ This study shows that single-atom catalysts – a field of research in which |
we have been at the forefront for years – continue to open up new opportunities for making chemical processes more efficient, selective and sustainable,’ comments Gianvito Vilé, Professor of Chemical Plant Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano.“ It is a fundamental research result, but it points to a promising direction for designing safer oxidation processes that are less reliant on aggressive reagents.”
THE ROLE OF THE POLITECNICO DI MILANO The contribution from the Politecnico di Milano focused in particular on the design and characterisation of the catalyst. Gianvito Vilé and Xiufang He, a postdoctoral researcher in
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Professor Vilé’ s group, took part in the research. The study is the result of an international collaboration led by the University of Bayreuth, involving the Leibniz Institute for Catalysis in Germany, the Politecnico di Milano and the National Research Council in Italy, Jagiellonian University in Poland and Stockholm University in Sweden. Although the work does not yet represent a ready-to-use industrial technology, it demonstrates a new principle: even a stable molecule that is difficult to activate, such as CO2, can become an active component in more sustainable chemical processes, thanks to the combination of light, catalysis and abundant metals such as iron. |
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