Scientists create nano-materials to trap record amounts of CO2

WASHINGTON - Scientists have achieved world records for creating both porosity and carbon dioxide storage capacity in an important class of materials known as MOFs, or metal-organic frameworks.

MOFs are crystal sponges with pores that can store gases that are usually difficult to store and transport.

Porosity is crucial for compacting large amounts of gases into small volumes and is an essential property for capturing carbon dioxide.

The materials were made at UCLA by Hiroyasu (Hiro) Furukawa, Seoul’s Soongsil University in South Korea by Jaheon Kim and Omar Yaghi, a UCLA professor of chemistry and biochemistry and a member of both the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) at UCLA and the UCLA-Department of Energy Institute of Genomics and Proteomics, along with colleagues.

“What is special about MOF-200 and MOF-210 is that they are approaching the limit of what you can get in a material. We may be able to design better structures, but they will not be easy to make,” said Yaghi.

“If I take a gram of MOF-200 and unravel it, it will cover many football fields, and that is the space you have for gases to assemble,” Yaghi said.

The research could lead to cleaner energy and the ability to capture heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions before they reach the atmosphere and contribute to global warming, rising sea levels and the increased acidity of oceans.

MOFs have held the record for having the highest porosity of any material, and are made from low-cost ingredients.

The study is published in the journal Science. (ANI)