[Haichuan Chemical Technology Engineering] Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics uncovers the mechanism by which carbon dioxide reacts with alkynes to form alkyne acids, revealing a new approach to turning carbon dioxide into a valuable resource

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Recently, a research team from the Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, made a new breakthrough by conducting in-depth studies on the mechanism by which carbon dioxide reacts with alkynes to form alkyne acids, providing new scientific evidence for turning waste into valuable resources. The research team led by Researcher Hu Bin at the Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics skillfully combined experiments with theoretical calculations to gradually deduce and verify the entire reaction process. They found that for a material called cerium dioxide, the more \"oxygen vacancies\" it contains, the better its catalytic performance. These oxygen vacancies act like \"adsorption sites\" for carbon dioxide, enabling them to effectively \"capture\" and activate carbon dioxide. The positively charged silver clusters act as \"stabilizers,\" helping the alkynes to participate more effectively in the reaction. It is the synergy between oxygen vacancies and silver clusters that enables the reaction to proceed efficiently. Based on these findings, the research team proposed a detailed reaction mechanism: under basic conditions, the alkyne loses a hydrogen atom to form an alkynyl anion, which then binds to the silver cluster ； Carbon dioxide is activated at the oxygen vacancies on the surface of cerium oxide ； Subsequently, the activated carbon dioxide is inserted at the junction of the alkyne and silver, ultimately yielding an acetylenic acid. This achievement was published in the international top journal “Energy & Chemistry”.