A novel porous material that has unique carbon dioxide retention
properties has been developed through research led by The University of
Nottingham.
The findings, published in Nature Materials, form part of ongoing efforts to develop new
materials for gas storage applications could have an impact in the advancement
of new carbon capture products for reducing emissions from fossil fuel
processes.
It focuses on the metal organic framework NOTT-202a, which
has a unique honeycomb-like structural arrangement and can be considered to
represent an entirely new class of porous material.
Most importantly, the material structure allows selective
adsorption of carbon dioxide—while other gases such as nitrogen, methane, and
hydrogen can pass back through, the carbon dioxide remains trapped in the
materials nanopores, even at low temperatures.
Unique material
Lead researcher Professor Martin Schröder, in the University’s School of Chemistry, said: “The unique defect
structure that this new material shows can be correlated directly to its gas
adsorption properties. Detailed analyses via structure determination and
computational modeling have been critical in determining and rationalizing the
structure and function of this material.”
The research team—which is included Sihai Yang, PhD,
Professor Alexander Blake, Professor Neil Champness, and Elena Bichoutskaia,
PhD, at Nottingham—collaborated on the project with colleagues at the University of Newcastle and Diamond Light Source and
STFC Daresbury Laboratory.
NOTT-202a consists of a tetra-carboxylate ligands—a
honeycomb-like structure made of a series of molecules or ions bound to a
central metal atom—and filled with indium metal centers. This forms a novel
structure consisting of two interlocked frameworks.
Innovative solutions
X-ray powder diffraction measurements at Diamond Light Source and advanced
computer modeling were used to probe and gain insight into the unique carbon
dioxide capturing properties of the material.
The study has been funded by the ERC Advanced Grant
COORDSPACE and by an EPSRC Programme Grant ChemEnSus aimed at applying
coordination chemistry to the generation of new multi-functional porous
materials that could provide innovative solutions for key issues around
environmental and chemical sustainability.
These projects incorporate multidisciplinary collaborations
across chemistry, physics, and materials science, and aim to develop new
materials that could have application in gas storage, sieving and purification,
carbon capture, chemical reactivity, and sensing.
Source: The University of Nottingham
