These microsize lightning bolts are more than fancy flashes in a chemical reactor tube. Dayne Swearer and his team at Northwestern University use free electrons in this plasma to help catalyze reactions. “We’re turning methane directly into methanol in a single-step process,” the chemical engineer says.
The scientists jump-start catalysis by applying a strong, controllable electric current to the system, thus turning the gases in the reactor into plasma. A real reaction uses a mixture of argon and methane, but these videos feature plasma streamers created by pure argon in slow motion. A metal catalyst—copper oxide nanoparticles in this case—placed where the gas and plasma meet the surrounding water bath provides the “secret sauce” for selectively producing methanol, Swearer says.
Gas composition and transport, the metal catalyst, and plasma dynamics all combine to create a perfect storm for methanol production.
Credit: Dayne Swearer/Northwestern University. Read the paper in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
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CORRECTION
This story was updated on May 27, 2026, to correct the mention of the first video’s speed. It is in slow motion, not real time.
