Synthesizing an Alloy That 'Couldn't Be Made' — Toward a New Catalyst That Turns CO2 into a Resource: Hokkaido University

Explanation

'Mixing metals that supposedly cannot be mixed' — a research team led by Assistant Professor Rei Miyazaki of the Institute for Catalysis at Hokkaido University has succeeded in creating just such an unconventional material. The achievement was announced on July 2, 2026.

An 'alloy,' made by mixing metals together, can have properties not found in the original metals depending on the combination. However, metals have compatibilities, and there are many combinations that do not mix uniformly at the atomic level. This time, the team succeeded in synthesizing an alloy material with a combination that had been considered 'impossible to make' under conventional theory.

What draws attention is its potential application as a catalyst. A catalyst is a substance that speeds up a chemical reaction without changing itself. The new alloy is said to have the potential to become a catalyst that converts CO2 (carbon dioxide), a cause of global warming, into chemical feedstock.

Technology that uses CO2 not as 'something to discard' but as a 'resource' is called carbon recycling, and development competition is ongoing worldwide. If it becomes possible to make raw materials for plastics and fuel from emitted CO2, manufacturing could be carried out while reducing CO2 in the atmosphere. The discovery of this new catalyst material is a foundational step toward realizing that goal.