Scientists in the United Kingdom have made a promising discovery in the field of scientific alchemy, identifying a porous material that could be used to store large quantities of greenhouse gases. The research on this material was detailed in a newly published paper in the journal Nature Synthesis, where the scientists explained how they used computational models to develop it.
The porous material is well-suited for storing carbon dioxide and sulphur hexafluoride, two potent greenhouse gases. Engineering professor Marc Little from Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University expressed excitement about the discovery, noting the need for new porous materials to address society’s biggest challenges. The newly discovered material acts like a cage made up of smaller molecules, composed of oxygen, nitrogen, and fluorine. Little emphasized the importance of capturing greenhouse gases efficiently from the environment to combat climate change, citing tree planting as an insufficient solution.
In addition to this porous material, other potential carbon-sinking materials are also being developed. These include a two-dimensional boron structure with a large surface area that could absorb greenhouse gases from power plants and experiments involving concrete modification to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. However, transitioning these laboratory experiments into market-ready solutions remains a major obstacle for scientists like Little who will need to address this challenge in order to effectively apply material science to combat climate change.
Further research and development will be needed to scale up these materials and implement them in real-world applications. Nonetheless, this discovery represents a significant advancement in the pursuit of solutions to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change.
