In New York state, to manage atmospheric carbon dioxide and convert the gas into a useful product, Cornell scientists have dusted off an archaic – now 120 years old – electrochemical equation. The group aims to thwart the consequences of global warming and climate change by applying this long-forgotten idea in a new way.
The calculation – named the Cottrell equation for chemist Frederick Gardner Cottrell, who developed it in 1903 – can help today’s researchers understand the several reactions that carbon dioxide can take when electrochemistry is applied and pulsed on a lab bench.
The electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide presents an opportunity to transform the gas from an environmental liability to a feedstock for chemical products or as a medium to store renewable electricity in the form of chemical bonds, as nature does.
In simple terms, the equation depicts a change in the measured electrochemical current over specific references to time during an experiment. What that means in a lab is that carbon dioxide is subjected to various applied potentials stepped up or down, or pulsed and these, in turn, generate a current that is related to the products formed from the reduction of carbon dioxide.
