Plasma-Catalyzed Sustainable Nanostructured Carbon Synthesis: Advancing Chemical-Looping CO2 Fixation

Clean energy-driven high-flux CO-to-C conversion has become increasingly urgent following the recent validation of CO₂-to-CO-to-C chemical looping. This approach addresses rising net carbon emissions and the growing demand for green nanocarbons, but the CO-to-C conversion limits process capacity. Meanwhile, sustainable nanocarbon production via mainstream thermal catalytic chemical vapor deposition of hydrocarbons faces bottlenecks. CO₂ is released during thermal reactions, and the process is hindered by the high temperatures, gas dilution requirements, rapid catalyst deactivation, and inconsistent carbon quality. Here, we report a strategy using cost-efficient iron oxides, combining nonthermal plasma, the Boudouard reaction, and fluidized bed technology for electrified high-flux CO-to-C conversion. This process integrates high carbon yield (>228.9 g_C g_Fe^–1) and synthesis rate (30.2 g_C g_Fe^–1 h^–1), operates an electrically driven mode at a reduced temperature (577 °C), avoids catalyst deactivation (>11 h), requires no gas dilution, and produces high-quality nanocarbons (nanofibers/nanocoils), demonstrating its industrial potential for sustainable nanocarbon synthesis and CO₂ fixation.