Cohort 1’s Anna Douglas of SkyNano Featured in Cambridge Journal

SkyNano LLC, a clean energy start-up company that focuses on the production and scale-up of high-value functional materials using greenhouse gases as chemical inputs. The main focus of SkyNano’s work is to control the diameter of the carbon nanotubes (CNTs) produced from ambient CO₂ via the electrochemical reduction of CO₂ to CNTs through molten salt electrolysis. The method is based on splitting Li2CO3 electrolyte to its components; O₂, which is collected at the anode; Li₂O, which accumulates in the electrolyte; and carbon, which precipitates on the cathode and grows into CNTs at the interface between the cathode and the molten salt. Li2O regenerates the Li₂CO₃ electrolyte through a chemical reaction with ambient CO₂.