Rather than being released into the atmosphere and exacerbating the problem of climate change, CO2 can also be used as a raw material for substances required in industrial processes, such as formic acid or methanol.

To do so, scientists have developed a process that relies on using nanodiamonds as a catalyst and irradiating them with short-wave UV-C light in a liquid environment.

The diamonds used in this research are not the jewellery-grade kind. Instead, the team used what is known as a "detonation diamond", which is produced on an industrial scale and is therefore relatively inexpensive as a catalyst.

As diamonds are largely made of carbon, the material can be considered a "green" catalyst, the team said. 

"Up to now, the experiments have been carried out in a batch reactor; i.e. a stirred flask. There are certain disadvantages to this method," says Thomas Rehm, one of the scientists at Fraunhofer IMM.

"Firstly, the...