Conversion of CO₂ by non-thermal inductively-coupled plasma catalysis

CO₂ decomposition is a very strongly endothermic reaction where very high temperatures are required to thermally dissociate CO₂. Radio frequency inductively-coupled plasma enables to selectively activate and dissociate CO₂ at room temperature. Tuning the flow rate and the frequency of the radio frequency inductively-coupled plasma gives high yields of CO under mild conditions. Finally the discovery of a plasma catalytic effect has been demonstrated for CO₂ dissociation that shows a significant increase of the CO yield by metallic meshes. The metallic meshes become catalysts under exposure to plasma to activate the recombination reaction of atomic O to yield O2, thereby reducing the reaction to convert CO back to CO₂. Inductively-coupled hybrid plasma catalysis allows access to study and to utilize high CO₂ conversion in a non-thermal plasma regime. This advance offers opportunities to investigate the possibility to use radio frequency inductively-coupled plasma to store superfluous renewable electricity into high-valuable CO in time where the price of renewable electricity is plunging.