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Researchers at the University of Virginia’s School of Engineering and Applied Science have figured out how to take a miracle material capable of extracting value from captured carbon dioxide and do what no one else can: make it practical for large-scale application manufacturing.

The breakthrough by chemical engineering assistant professor Gaurav “Gino” Giri’s lab group has implications for cleaning up greenhouse gases, a major factor in the climate change dilemma. It can also help solve the world’s energy needs.

The substance, called MOF-525, is in a class of materials called metal-organic frameworks.

“If you can get these MOFs to cover large areas, then new applications become possible, such as creating a membrane for carbon capture and electrocatalytic conversion in one system,” Geary said.

Electrocatalytic conversion creates a bridge from renewable energy sources to direct chemical synthesis, removing the burning of carbon dioxide-producing fossil fuels from the equation.

What gives MOFs their superpowers are their ultra-porous, crystalline structures—3D networks of tiny nanoscale cavities that create a huge internal surface area and act like a sponge—that can be engineered to trap any chemical compound.

An avant-garde solution

Geary’s group reasoned that starting with an inherently scalable synthesis technique—solution shear—would improve their chances. They have already achieved success in shearing simpler MOFs.

In Giri’s process, MOF components are mixed in a solution, then spread onto a substrate with a cutting blade. As the solution evaporates, the chemical bonds form the MOF as a thin film on the substrate. Applying MOF-525 in this way creates an all-in-one membrane for carbon capture and conversion.

“The bigger the membrane, the more surface area you have for the reaction and the more product you can get,” said Prince Verma, a December 2023 Ph.D. graduate of Geary’s lab. “With this process, you can increase the width of the cutting blade to whatever size you need.”

The team headed to the CO₂ conversion to demonstrate their shear solution approach, as carbon capture is widely used to reduce industrial emissions or to remove it from the atmosphere, but at a cost to operators with minimal return on investment: carbon dioxide has little commercial value and most often stored indefinitely underground.

However, with a minimal input of energy, using electricity to catalyze a reaction, MOF-525 can take away an oxygen atom to produce carbon monoxide, a chemical that is valuable for making fuels, pharmaceuticals and other products.

The researchers published their findings in the Journal of the American Chemical Society Applied materials and interfaces. Connor A. Koelner, Haley Hall, Megan R. Feaster, Kevin H. Stone, Asa W. Nichols, Ankit Dhakal, and Earl Ashcraft also contributed to this work.