Genius: Researchers find a way to scale up miracle material, which could do wonders for Earth

Researchers at the University of Virginia’s School of Engineering and Applied Science have discovered how to take a wonder material, one that can extract value from captured carbon dioxide, and do what no one else has: make it practical to fabricate for large-scale application .

Assistant Professor Gaurav “Gino” Giri’s laboratory group’s breakthrough in chemical engineering has implications for cleaning up the greenhouse gas, which is a major contributor to the climate change dilemma. It could also help solve the world’s energy needs.

The substance, called MOF-525, belongs to a class of materials called metal-organic frameworks.

“If you can ensure that these MOFs cover large areas, new applications become possible, such as making a membrane for carbon capture and electrocatalytic conversion in one system,” Giri said.

Electrocatalytic conversion bridges renewable energy sources to direct chemical synthesis, eliminating the combustion of carbon dioxide-producing fossil fuels.

What gives MOFs superpowers are their ultraporous, crystalline structures – 3D networks of tiny nanoscale cavities that create a huge internal surface area and act like a sponge – which can be engineered to trap all kinds of chemical compounds.

A groundbreaking solution

Giri’s group reasoned that starting with an inherently scalable synthesis technique (solution shearing) would improve their chances. They had already had success cutting simpler MOFs.

In Giri’s process, the components of the MOF are mixed in a solution and then spread over a substrate with the scissor blade. As the solution evaporates, 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 capturing and converting carbon.

“The larger the membrane, the more surface area you have for the reaction, and the more product you can get,” says Prins Verma, who received his PhD in December 2023. graduated from Giri’s laboratory. “This process allows you to increase the width of the razor to the size you want.”

The team focused on CO₂ conversion to demonstrate their solution-oriented approach, as carbon capture is widely used to reduce industrial emissions or remove them from the atmosphere, but at the expense of operators with minimal return on investment: carbon dioxide has little commercial value and is usually stored for underground indefinitely.

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

The researchers published their findings in the journal American Chemical Society Applied materials and interfaces. Connor A. Koellner, Hailey Hall, Meagan R. Phister, Kevin H. Stone, Asa W. Nichols, Ankit Dhakal, and Earl Ashcraft also contributed to the work.