Experts Finally Found an Effective Way to Reverse the Negative Effects of Carbon Dioxide on Earth

Carbon dioxide is a compound found within the earth's atmosphere that is considered to be one of the gasses needed for a continuous life cycle. But having too much of this gas can only bring hazard to Earth if not controlled. Good thing scientists have recently found a way to convert carbon dioxide into something that could benefit both people and nature.

Through the study conducted, which was published in the journal Science, the experts from the University of Illinois at Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory, with the help of engineers from South Korea, were able to create a solar cell that can produce synthesis gas (syngas) generated from carbon dioxide. These gas can be used as diesel, burned as is or can be produced to become other hydrocarbon fuels, as posted by Sci-News.

Led by Argonne National Laboratory's Dr. Larry Curtiss and University of Illinois's Dr. Amin Salehi-Khojin, the study has targeted not only one but two crucial problems that the world is facing now. The discovery helps decrease the amount of carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere that contributes to the Earth's climate change and global warming. By producing man-made energy-dense fuel, the use of natural sources for fuel are also minimized.

The device acts like a leaf in the tree that captures carbon dioxide that is present in the air. The compound is then turned into glucose, which is the primary food of plants. But unlike leaves' catalysts, these solar cells have nanoflake tungsten diselende catalyst that is responsible for the device's chemical change, as reported by Tech Times.

"The new solar cell is not photovoltaic-it's photosynthetic," Dr. Amin Salehi-Khojin said, as posted by International Business Times. "Instead of producing energy in an unsustainable one-way route from fossil fuels to greenhouse gas, we can now reverse the process and recycle atmospheric carbon into fuel using sunlight," he added.