***What should we do with unwanted carbon dioxide? Well, engineers from MIT want to make batteries from it that not only store energy but also convert carbon dioxide into a solid material. If they manage to finish the technology maybe we will see them in a few years***

<center>https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Li_ion_laptop_battery.jpg</center>
Kristoferb [CC BY-SA 3.0  (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], from Wikimedia Commons

Humankind is still producing a gigantic amount of CO2 and thus affect our planet’s atmosphere. We can either complain about it or develop technologies that will help us solve the problem. There have already been ideas like catching CO2 from the atmosphere and storing it underground or even to change it to carbon fibers. Now people at MIT have decided to go with the engineering route and came up with an interesting way to use the CO2 we don’t want – unique lithium-carbon dioxide batteries (Li-CO2 batteries). 

CO2 is nowadays so feared by many organization that to some it may seem like the most dangerous substance in the world. In reality, the problem lays in the fact that it is quite hard to convert the CO2 gas into another form. Usually, it requires a lot of energy – which means a lot of money and that complicates the practicality of such technologies.

This is where Betar Gallant and her coworkers suggest that we could use CO2 to create a new type of batteries. But you may say, CO2 is quite inert – all previous attempts at creating such a battery required metal catalysts. But the MIT team has found a way how to create an electrode from carbon. In their technology, they first prepare CO2 by building it into a water solution of amines. This solution is then mixed with another liquid electrolyte and used in a battery that uses a carbon cathode and lithium anode.

This interesting battery can not only give comparable amounts of energy to existing lithium-air batteries but has a bonus on top. It converts the CO2 in the electrolyte into a solid mineral known as carbonate. By chance, this is a very effective way to convert gaseous CO2 into solid matter. And this carbonate is that useful, for example, to create more carbon cathodes for the batteries.

The current version of the battery is only a prototype, obviously. The engineers say it will take at least several more years before a commercially viable version of the battery will be available. That is because at the moment the battery suffers from a few critical flaws – for example, the battery can be charged only about ten times. But the engineers believe their battery could be modified and improved. But we will see in a few years.


**Sources:**
* http://news.mit.edu/2018/new-lithium-battery-convert-carbon-dioxide
* https://www.cell.com/joule/fulltext/S2542-4351(17)30008-9

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