Scientists led by Kyriakos Stylianou at Oregon State University (OSU) have developed a cost-effective and efficient method to capture carbon dioxide, a significant cause of climate change, according to a study published in Cell Reports Physical Science.
The research team focused on improving Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs), nanomaterials that trap carbon dioxide through adsorption in industrial settings. They typically act at the moment of emission, such as the smokestacks of factories, but existing MOFs face several challenges that limit their practical use, including high cost, reduced selectivity for carbon dioxide, instability in humid conditions, and limited CO2 uptake capacities.
Addressing these drawbacks, the OSU team introduced an aluminum-based MOF with benzene-1,2,4,5-tetracarboxylic acid as a ligand, an affordable compound that can be synthesized in water within a few hours. This MOF effectively absorbs carbon dioxide, even in damp conditions, while showing preference to carbon dioxide over nitrogen oxides. It can be regenerated and reused with similar capture capacities, thus promising for industrial applications. So in short, it overcomes virtually every disadvantage known MOFs have.
While more testing is necessary to explore large-scale feasibility, this development signifies a considerable step forward in mitigating climate change, offering an economically and environmentally viable solution to the global emissions problem.