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Texas A&M scientists find a plasma route to graphene oxide and green H2
The plasma-based method turns methane into graphene oxide while producing green hydrogen as a byproduct, with researchers citing minimal greenhouse gas emissions.
Texas A&M University researchers in College Station, Texas, say they developed a plasma process that can produce graphene oxide directly from natural gas, after the team was initially studying a different phenomenon.
According to OilPrice, the method uses methane with “a nonthermal plasma-water interface,” originally intended to improve clean hydrogen production, but the researchers found the more valuable output is the carbon material, with hydrogen instead becoming the byproduct.
The outlet says the researchers now characterize graphene oxide as the primary product, while reporting that the process also produces significant amounts of hydrogen and yields minimal greenhouse gas emissions.
OilPrice adds that the work suggests lithium-ion battery manufacturing could benefit from a route to a critical component that is potentially more efficient and cheaper than existing approaches, if the process scales.
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