IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v16y2025i1d10.1038_s41467-025-65560-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A nickel gallium oxide chlorophyll mimic for green methanol synthesis

Author

Listed:
  • Rui Song

    (Soochow University, Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM) and Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Negative Carbon Technologies
    University of Toronto, Solar Fuels Group, Department of Chemistry)

  • Zhiwen Chen

    (Jilin University, Key Laboratory of Automobile Materials, Ministry of Education, and School of Materials Science and Engineering)

  • Chenyue Qiu

    (University of Toronto, Department of Materials Science and Engineering)

  • Yang-fan Xu

    (Soochow University, Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM) and Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Negative Carbon Technologies)

  • Andrew Wang

    (University of Toronto, Solar Fuels Group, Department of Chemistry
    University of Toronto, Chemical Physics Theory Group, Department of Chemistry)

  • Xiaoliang Yan

    (Taiyuan University of Technology, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering and State Key Laboratory of Clean and Efficient Coal Utilization)

  • Yubin Fu

    (Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics)

  • Paul N. Duchesne

    (Queen’s University, Department of Chemistry)

  • Emerson MacNeil

    (Queen’s University, Department of Chemistry)

  • Jigang Zhou

    (Canadian Light Source Inc)

  • Chaoqian Ai

    (Xi’an International University, College of Engineering)

  • Jiuli Guo

    (Anyang Normal University, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering)

  • Chaoran Li

    (Soochow University, Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM) and Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Negative Carbon Technologies)

  • Xingda An

    (Soochow University, Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM) and Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Negative Carbon Technologies)

  • Zhijie Chen

    (Soochow University, Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM) and Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Negative Carbon Technologies)

  • Jiajun Han

    (China Agricultural University, Department of Applied Chemistry, College of Science)

  • Dengwei Jing

    (Xi’an Jiaotong University, International Research Center for Renewable Energy, State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering)

  • Athanasios A. Tountas

    (University of Toronto, Solar Fuels Group, Department of Chemistry)

  • Jessica Ye

    (University of Toronto, Solar Fuels Group, Department of Chemistry)

  • Guangming Cai

    (University of Toronto, Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry)

  • Joel Y. Y. Loh

    (University of Manchester, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Photon Science Institute)

  • Abhinav Mohan

    (University of Toronto, Solar Fuels Group, Department of Chemistry)

  • Wenqiang Qu

    (University of Toronto, Solar Fuels Group, Department of Chemistry)

  • Zhihao Zhu

    (University of Toronto, Solar Fuels Group, Department of Chemistry)

  • Camilo J. Viasus

    (University of Toronto, Solar Fuels Group, Department of Chemistry)

  • Lu Wang

    (Shenzhen, School of Science and Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong)

  • Chang Xu

    (Shenzhen, School of Science and Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong)

  • Zhao Li

    (University of Toronto, Solar Fuels Group, Department of Chemistry)

  • Xiaohong Zhang

    (Soochow University, Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM) and Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Negative Carbon Technologies)

  • Alán Aspuru-Guzik

    (University of Toronto, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
    Sandford Fleming Building, Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto)

  • Chandra Veer Singh

    (University of Toronto, Department of Materials Science and Engineering)

  • Le He

    (Soochow University, Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM) and Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Negative Carbon Technologies)

  • Geoffrey A. Ozin

    (University of Toronto, Solar Fuels Group, Department of Chemistry)

Abstract

Light-driven methanol synthesis from CO2 provides a sustainable fuel source and approach to carbon neutralization. Mimicking natural photosynthesis could improve gas-solid photocatalytic efficiency, but it remains highly challenging due to the absence of well-organized mass and charge transfer networks in artificial materials. Herein, we report a chlorophyll-mimicking, nano-pigment nickel gallium oxide, which facilitates discrete light/dark reactions and proton-mediated charge transfer for efficient photocatalytic hydrogenation of CO2 to methanol. This nano-pigment features surface frustrated Lewis pairs, enabling heterolytic hydrogen splitting into H- and H+. The H- acts analogously to nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate in natural photosynthesis, with Ni(II)/Ni(III) and OH(-I) respectively serving as conduits for ion transport of H- and H+ to the Ni site, where they subsequently react with CO2, mimicking natural carbon fixation. This approach establishes a chlorophyll-mimetic structure for photocatalytic stepwise CO2 hydrogenation, achieving 3.0% quantum efficiency, 3.20 mmol·h-1·g-1 methanol activity, and 79.6% selectivity.

Suggested Citation

  • Rui Song & Zhiwen Chen & Chenyue Qiu & Yang-fan Xu & Andrew Wang & Xiaoliang Yan & Yubin Fu & Paul N. Duchesne & Emerson MacNeil & Jigang Zhou & Chaoqian Ai & Jiuli Guo & Chaoran Li & Xingda An & Zhij, 2025. "A nickel gallium oxide chlorophyll mimic for green methanol synthesis," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-14, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-65560-y
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-65560-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-65560-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-025-65560-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-65560-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.