A 2018 laboratory study showed that an engineered tungsten trioxide material could use infrared light to drive a reaction that splits carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide and oxygen. It did not convert half of sunlight into fuel: “almost 50%” describes the infrared share of solar energy in the study’s framing, not the catalyst’s efficiency.
What did the 2018 experiment demonstrate?
Liang Liang and co-authors reported the result in Joule on May 16, 2018, in “Infrared Light-Driven CO2 Overall Splitting at Room Temperature.” They used ultrathin layers of oxygen-deficient cubic tungsten trioxide (WO3) as a photocatalyst. Under the reported laboratory conditions, infrared light drove CO2 splitting at room temperature, producing carbon monoxide (CO) and oxygen (O2).
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The authors described the reaction as occurring on a single material, with water serving as a proton source and mediating electron transfer, and without sacrificial reductants. They reported that the material continued catalytic activity without deactivation after three days. That is a specific laboratory observation, not evidence of commercial durability or a long service life.
How can infrared light split carbon dioxide?
The challenge is that lower-energy infrared photons do not readily provide the redox capability needed to drive both parts of the reaction through the conventional route discussed in the paper. The authors give a theoretical energy requirement of 1.35 eV for overall CO2 splitting into CO and O2, and describe photons above 920 nm as unable to trigger both half-reactions simultaneously under that conventional constraint.
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The material’s design offers another route: oxygen vacancies—sites where oxygen atoms are absent—were introduced into the WO3 layers. At a critical vacancy density, they created an intermediate band in the material. This band allows the material to absorb lower-energy photons in steps while retaining the redox capability required for the reaction.
The study summary says the authors verified the intermediate band using valence-band, photoluminescence, UV-vis-NIR and infrared-reflectance measurements. The result is a specific materials strategy for using infrared light, not proof that infrared photons alone make the full process efficient at scale.
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What does “almost 50% of sunlight” mean?
The phrase refers to the study’s characterization of infrared light as making up almost 50% of solar energy. It does not mean that the WO3 catalyst converted 50% of incoming sunlight into fuel—or that half of sunlight is now practically available as chemical energy. The solar spectrum’s energy share, the amount a material absorbs, and the fraction ultimately converted into products are different measures.
Yi Xie, a researcher at the University of Science and Technology of China, said in a 2018 Chemistry World report: “Since the first report of carbon dioxide photoreduction in 1978, IR light constituting almost 50% of the solar energy has never been utilised to drive carbon dioxide reduction to fuels.” This is Xie’s statement in that report, rather than an independently established historical claim.
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What are the limits of the result?
The study established a laboratory demonstration with a particular material and reaction. The available reports do not give a conversion-efficiency or scale-up figure, so the result should not be read as evidence of high fuel yield, practical output, or an efficient solar-fuel system.
In the same 2018 Chemistry World report, Lianzhou Wang, a University of Queensland solar-energy-conversion researcher who was not involved in the work, noted that semiconductors with bandgaps small enough to absorb infrared light may lack the redox potentials needed for photocatalysis such as water splitting or carbon dioxide reduction. He praised the intermediate-band strategy while calling for further mechanistic study. The report also said conversion-efficiency improvements would be needed before commercial use.
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Is artificial photosynthesis commercially available?
The cited sources establish no current commercial system, consumer device, or product based on this demonstration. The three-day activity result is not a commercial lifetime test, and the available reporting does not establish a deployed system or a commercial-scale output. This work is best understood as a materials and chemistry result that may inform future research, not as a technology a consumer can buy or use.
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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteSources: The Joule article record and summary; Chemistry World’s 2018 report.
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