Copper has a unique ability to convert carbon dioxide into fuels and raw materials for plastics. KAIST researchers found that copper’s special performance cannot be explained by electronic properties alone, but depends on the atomic arrangement of the catalyst surface.

Carbon dioxide is widely known as a major contributor to climate change, but it is also a useful carbon resource. If it can be converted into fuels or raw materials for plastics using electricity, these waste emissions could become valuable feedstocks for future industries. For this reason, carbon dioxide conversion is attracting attention as an important technology for carbon neutrality.

However, carbon dioxide is a highly stable molecule and does not react easily. A catalyst is needed to help convert it into useful products. Depending on the catalyst, carbon dioxide can be transformed into carbon monoxide, formic acid, ethylene, ethanol, and other chemicals. Among them, ethylene and ethanol are especially valuable because they are widely used in plastics, fuels, and chemical industries. Until now, copper has been regarded as virtually the only metal capable of efficiently producing these complex carbon-based products from carbon dioxide.

To understand why copper is special, a research team led by Professor Jihun Oh from KAIST, in collaboration with Professor Stephan Ringe’s group at Korea University, prepared a series of alloy catalysts from gold, silver, and palladium. The team compared more than 16 alloy catalysts under identical conditions and analyzed how their surface electronic properties correlated with CO₂ conversion performance. They also prepared catalysts with electronic properties very similar to those of copper.