Porous Material Discovery Holds Promise in Climate Change Fight

Jakarta –

A team of scientists from the UK say they have discovered a porous material that has the ability to store large amounts of greenhouse gases. This discovery could be a new tool in the fight against climate change. These findings are detailed in a new paper published in the journal Nature Synthesis.

Reporting from The Byte, Tuesday (2/5/2024) in the paper, the scientists explain how they used computer models to develop this material. They revealed that certain properties of the material’s structure could make it an excellent source for carbon dioxide and other strong greenhouse gases such as sulfur hexafluoride.

“This is an exciting discovery because we need new porous materials to solve society’s biggest challenges,” said Professor of Engineering Marc Little from Heriot-Watt University in in Edinburgh in the investigation.

This innovative material is created from an arrangement of small molecules that form a kind of cage-like structure. This substance is a large organic substance composed of the elements oxygen, nitrogen and fluorine.

According to Little, “Planting trees is a very effective way to capture carbon, but it is very slow. So we need human intervention such as man-made molecules, to capture greenhouse gases from the environment faster. “

In addition to these new materials, other materials with the ability to store carbon are also being developed. One is a two-dimensional structure made of boron that has a large surface area and can absorb large amounts of greenhouse gases from power plants.

Scientists are also studying concrete, a key material for the infrastructure of modern society. However, the concrete production process, especially using cement, produces significant carbon dioxide emissions, estimated at 8% of the total greenhouse gas emissions produced by humans each year .

Researchers have studied how adding ingredients such as baking soda to concrete can help the material absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

However, the big challenge is that many of these new products are largely laboratory experiments. This is a challenge for anyone who wants to use materials science to tackle climate change.

* This article was written by Fadhila Khairina Fachri, a participant in detikcom’s Merdeka Campus Certificate Induction Program.

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(rns/fay)