New Crystal Captures Carbon Dioxide to Curtail Climate Warming

A new material can actually capture carbon from the air. Scientists have created crystals that capture carbon dioxide much more efficiently than previously known materials, even in the presence of water.

One way to mitigate climate change could be to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air. Yet this task has been difficult so far, since the presence of water prevents the adsorption of CO2. Complete dehydration is a costly process. Now, though, researchers have created a stable and recyclable material, where the micropores within the crystal have different adsorption sites for carbon dioxide and water.

"As far as I know, this is the first material that captures CO2 in an efficient way in the presence of humidity," said Osamu Terasaki, one of the researchers, in a news release. "In other cases there is competition between water and carbon dioxide and water usually wins. This material absorbs both, but the CO2 uptake is enormous."

The new material is actually called SGU-29; it's a copper silicate crystal that could potentially be used for capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and especially to clean emissions.

"CO2 is always produced with moisture, and now we can capture CO2 from humid gases," said Terasaki. "Combined with other systems that are being develop, the waste carbon can be used for new valuable compounds. People are working very hard and I think we will be able to do this within five years. The most difficult part is to capture carbon dioxide, and we have a solution for that now."

The findings are published in the journal Science.

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