‘Walking’ catalyst shows carbon dioxide the way
Unrefined hydrocarbons and carbon dioxide are turned into speciality fatty acids with the help of a migrating nickel catalyst
A catalytic process has been developed that can take the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide and combine it with hydrocarbons to make fatty acids with high selectivity. The approach not only offers a platform for using carbon dioxide as a raw material in the synthesis of valuable chemicals, but also allows petroleum-derived feedstocks to be used without previous refining.