Breakthrough in CO2 production of daily chemical products

Acrylic acid can be used to make everything from polyester fabrics to diapers, and the Chemical Industry often uses crude oil derivatives of propylene to produce acrylates, and new research could lead to a cheaper, more sustainable process for making acrylates.

Since the 1980s, in order to reduce the production cost of acrylates, researchers have been studying the use of nickel and other metals as catalysts to synthesize acrylates from carbon dioxide and ethylene gases. Carbon dioxide is readily available, and ethylene can be extracted from biomass, so it is cheaper than propylene.

However, an obstacle can never be overcome. Before forming acrylate molecules, carbon dioxide and ethylene tend to form a five-membered ring precursor molecule composed of oxygen, nickel, and three carbon atoms. In order to convert to acrylate, the ring needs to be cracked open to form a carbon-carbon double bond.

The research team led by Wesley, an assistant professor of chemistry at Brown University, discovered in a new study that a Chemical called Lewis Acid can easily break this five-membered ring and form an acrylate. The Lewis acid is basically an electron acceptor that “stocks” electrons that connect the nickel and the oxygen in the ring to form a bond, thereby weakening the link and opening the ring.

"Our initial vision was that if we could find a chemical way to open this ring,  then we could form an acrylate very quickly,"  Wesley said.  This "activation (activation) technique" can eventually be incorporated into a complete catalysis.  This  process can produce acrylates, Chemical Products, on a large scale., open the door to the Chemical Industry Market.