Carbon capture
Sep 10, 2012
A collaboration of scientists from the University of Nottingham, STFC’s ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, Diamond Light Source, the University of Oxford and Peking University in China, have created a new low-cost material that can capture harmful gases, offering exciting prospects for combating atmospheric pollution.The porous material, dubbed NOTT-300, has the potential to reduce fossil fuel emissions through the cheaper and more efficient capture of polluting gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and sulphur dioxide (SO2).
Part of the project was undertaken at Diamond, the UK’s national synchrotron science facility, where advanced powder diffraction experiments were carried out on the High Resolution Powder Diffraction beamline (I11). The data obtained enabled the team to determine the crystal structure of the material and to understand the mechanism by which CO2/SO2 is captured by this material.
The research, published in the scientific journal Nature Chemistry, demonstrates how the exciting properties of NOTT-300 could provide a greener alternative to existing solutions to adsorb CO2 which are expensive and use large amounts of energy.
The image to the right shows the crystal structure of NOTT-300
Selectivity and direct visualization of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide in a decorated porous host, Sihai Yang, Junliang Sun, Anibal J. Ramirez-Cuesta, Samantha K. Callear, William I. F. David, Daniel P. Anderson, Ruth Newby, Alexander J. Blake, Julia E. Parker, Chiu C. Tang and Martin Schroeder, Nature Chemistry, September 2012
DOI: 10.1038/nchem.1457
Diamond Light Source is the UK's national synchrotron science facility, located at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire.
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