https://phys.org/news/2018-06-carbon-dioxide-to-methanol-catalyst.html > Researchers have advanced the process of converting carbon dioxide into methanol, which contains four parts hydrogen, one part oxygen and one part carbon, by developing a new catalyst that uses a specific formulation of palladium and copper. The theoretical and experimental work, recently published in ACS Catalysis, is the result of years of integrated experimental and computational research conducted in a partnership with Dalian University of Technology in China in conjunction with the Penn State-Dalian Joint Center for Energy Research. The Penn State-Dalian collaborative research unearthed the benefits of combining the two metals as the catalyst. > A key factor in converting carbon dioxide to methanol is finding a good catalyst so that methanol can be produced in high selectivity at an efficient rate. In the palladium-to-copper atomic ratio range of 0.3 to 0.4, combining palladium and copper yielded the most efficient conversion of methanol from carbon dioxide using nanoparticles of the catalyst dispersed on a porous support material that increased the surface area of the catalyst. With a catalyst the size of a walnut, the internal surface area of the catalyst would cover about the area of a football field.