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Introduction to CO2 Electroreduction
Turning atmospheric CO2 into fuels through electrocatalysis offers a sustainable alternative to fossil resources, but the process remains inefficient and costly. Competing reactions such as the hydrogen evolution limit performance, and the key to improvement lies at the catalyst interface: hydration layers formed by water and electrolytes regulate how efficiently these chemical transformations occur. “However, the role of carbonate anions and the nature of the interfacial hydration layers during CO2 electroreduction is still poorly understood,” says Dr. Christopher Kley, Helmholtz Young Investigator Group Leader at HZB and the Interface Science Department at FHI.
The Role of Carbonates and their Radicals
To address these questions, Kley’s team member Dr. Ya-Wei Zhou established advanced spectroscopic techniques, including attenuated total reflectance surface-enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy (ATR-SEIRAS). “This allowed us to detect carbonate anion radicals (CO3•–) originating from hydrated carbonate. Carbonates promote molecular ordering within interfacial hydration layers and the radicals act as proton relay and facilitate charge transfer to gold, accelerating hydrogen evolution”, explains Dr. Zhou, first author of the study. Further analysis using differential mass spectrometry (DEMS) revealed that carbonate radicals are also a carbon source, producing formaldehyde. Complementary isotope-labeled spectroscopy and density functional theory (DFT) modeling by Prof. Nuria Lopez’s team at ICIQ in Tarragona (Spain) confirmed that the water is the primary proton donor, rather than bicarbonate, shedding light into a long controversy in the literature.
Implications for Future Research
“These findings provide a new molecular-level perspective on the competition between CO2 electroreduction and hydrogen evolution on gold electrodes, prompting a reevaluation of the origin of electrocatalytic selectivity that need to be explored for materials systems such as copper which have shown more intricate selectivity trends”, says Prof. Beatriz Roldán Cuenya from FHI. By showing how carbonate molecules shape the local environment at the catalyst surface, the study highlights strategies to enhance reaction efficiency and selectivity, advancing electrocatalytic CO2 conversion and the development of more effective electrocatalytic systems for sustainable energy applications.
La entrada How Carbonates Influence CO2-to-Fuel Conversion: New Insights from Gold Electrocatalysts se publicó primero en ICIQ.
Adherence to the Mediterranean diet in urban households across Barcelona is low or moderate, despite its widely recognized benefits for cardiovascular, metabolic, and mental health.
Abstract: Despite the observation of Gravitational Waves (GWs) in 2015, a proof that Gravity is quantum in nature still eludes us. An unambiguous proof of existence of Quantum Gravity would be the detection of a single graviton, the quantum field that would serve as a carrier of the gravitational interaction, if the latter exists as a fundamental, and not emergent, force of Nature. However this task, despite excellent ideas, some of which are quite recent (e.g. search for the `noise’ of squeezed gravitons in interferometers), seems to be very difficult to achieve, or distinguish from the effects of classical GWs, at least within the framework of presently available technologies. Nonetheless, while the direct detection of single gravitons remains beyond experimental reach at present, this may not be the case for squeezed quantum graviton states produced in some collective phenomena. In the talk, I will concentrate on a recent proposal of collaborators and myself, which suggests a method for probing quantum gravitational effects via squeezed gravitons produced through astrophysical processes near rotating black holes. The key novelty lies in the exploitation of condensates (“clouds’’) of massive axion-like particles (ALPs) possibly formed via a superradiance instability in the interaction between the ALP and the rotating black hole. The exponential growth of such condensates offers a macroscopic amplification mechanism of potential quantum-gravity effects, due to the very large numbers of ALPs involved in the cloud. This, in turn, enables the generation of sufficiently large numbers of quantum-entangled multi-mode squeezed graviton states that could be detectable in current or near-future interferometric data. In the talk, I will explain in detail how spin-polarised-entangled pairs of squeezed gravitons can be produced through interactions of ALPs, studied within the framework of weak-quantum-graviton effective field theories. The non-observation by the LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA interferometers of such squeezed gravitons at present can place (for the first time) stringent upper-bound constraints on ALP cloud lifetimes. I will also demonstrate that the structure of the entangled graviton states (when the latter are expressed in a left-right polarization basis, analogous to EPR states in particle physics) depends highly on whether their production occurs via ALP annihilation (due to conventional General-Relativity-type interactions), or decays of ALPs (due to the presence of gravitationally anomalous Chern-Simons interactions of ALPs with gravity, which are non-trivial in the background of a rotating black hole). I will draw analogies between the above effects and some effects of squeezed photons in quantum optics, but I will also stress important differences. This idea combines four frontiers — black hole physics, axion phenomenology, gravitational waves and quantum gravity — in a compelling and testable framework.
En primer lugar, el Patronato del CNIO, reunido en sesión extraordinaria en el día de hoy ha aprobado, a propuesta de su actual gerente y por la unanimidad de sus integrantes, una reordenación de la estructura organizativa en el ámbito de la Gerencia, con el fin de:
• Eliminar duplicidades y capas intermedias que no aportan valor diferencial.
• Avanzar en la simplificación y digitalización de procesos administrativos.
• Liberar recursos para destinarlos a las prioridades estratégicas del Centro.
• Garantizar la sostenibilidad presupuestaria.
El Patronato ha dado luz verde al gerente para que ejecute de forma inmediata esta reordenación organizativa.
Por otro lado, el actual gerente del CNIO también ha informado sobre la entrega en la Fiscalía de Madrid de un informe sobre la situación del centro, informe en el que él venía trabajando desde que tomó posesión de su cargo el pasado 1 de septiembre y que contiene información recabada hasta la fecha de su entrega, el 18 de noviembre. El Patronato respalda esta acción y anima al gerente a seguir trabajando en esa línea.
En todo caso, el Patronato manifiesta colaboración total con la justicia y absoluta determinación con cualquier tipo de irregularidades que se hayan podido producir.
El Patronato informa que, a día de hoy, no tiene constancia de ninguna otra denuncia previa distinta de la interpuesta por el Director Gerente actual.
El CNIO inició el 29 de enero de este año una nueva etapa que comenzó después de que el Patronato del centro decidiera, ese mismo día y por unanimidad de todos sus integrantes, cesar a su por entonces directora científica, María Blasco, y también a su gerente, Juan Arroyo. La decisión se tomó porque el “ambiente que se vivía en el centro no era compatible con la excelencia científica requerida”.
Ese mismo 29 de enero, se decidió iniciar un proceso para lanzar un concurso público internacional para elegir una nueva dirección científica y una nueva dirección al frente de la gerencia del centro, cuya misión, entre otras, era recabar toda la información respecto a la situación del CNIO durante los últimos 18 años, profundizando en la situación, dado que los informes presentados ese mismo día sobre la situación del centro tanto por parte de la directora científica como por parte del director gerente eran de parte y no contrastados.
El actual gerente del CNIO tomó posesión de su cargo el pasado 1 de septiembre y entre los objetivos encomendados por el Patronato del centro al nuevo gerente está recabar toda la información necesaria para conocer el estado de situación del centro.
Las cuentas del CNIO están auditadas anualmente por la Intervención General del Estado, y en la actualidad, además, a petición del Patronato, el Tribunal de Cuentas está auditando los ejercicios correspondientes a los años 2022, 2023 y 2024, en un ejercicio de transparencia.
El Patronato vuelve a manifiestar su respaldo a la excelencia científica del CNIO y la de sus investigadores e investigadoras, y recuerda que es una seña de nuestra potencia investigadora en todo el mundo, hoy el primer centro de investigación contra el cáncer en España, y el segundo más importante de Europa.
El objetivo del Patronado ha sido, es y será trabajar para garantizar la estabilidad y el futuro del CNIO, y apoyar su excelencia.
La entrada El Patronato del CNIO celebrado en el día de hoy, informa: se publicó primero en CNIO.
Abstract: We review some conceptual problems in quantum theory, their repercussions in the way we treat the gravitation/quantum interface emphasizing the manner in which they occur in the cosmological context. We will consider in particular issues arising in the discussion of inflation, such as the emergence of the seeds of cosmic structure, the predictions for generation of primordial gravity waves, and the problem of eternal inflation, where we find that the approach we advocate results in substantial departures from the findings obtained in the more traditional treatments.
Victoria Reyes García, ICREA professor at ICTA-UAB, has received the Rei Jaume I Award in the Environmental Protection category from King Felipe VI in a ceremony in which the seven awardees have expressed their willingness to work to transform reality through knowledge and to open paths where others only see limits.
