Credit: Image courtesy of Felix Fischer, UC Berkeley
The efficiency of the conversion of carbon dioxide (indicated by the carbon (C) and two oxygen (O’s) on the left) to carbon monoxide (CO, on the right) requires catalysts that are typically small particles made of a cluster of gold (Au) atoms. In this research, scientists used a chemically tunable, one-atom-thick ribbon of carbon (grey dots). The new system had a 100-fold increase in conversion efficiency compared to the same catalyst on traditional amorphous carbon.