Newly Discovered ‘Wonder Material’ Could Let Us Lock Away Excess CO2

Proverbial Diamond in the Rough

More than 70 years ago, two strange minerals were discovered in a mine in Siberia, 230 metres underground below thawing permafrost. The stepanovite was found by Russian geologist Pavel Ivanovich Stepanov, and the zhemchuzhnikovite which was discovered by Yurii Apollonovich Zhemchezhnikov.

The world didn’t make much of these discoveries because we didn’t have the technology to examine these minerals. So for decades, they sat forgotten in storage.

However, in 2010, Tomislav Friščić, associate professor at the McGill University’s chemistry department, dug up information on the minerals and found their structural descriptions were an incredible match to a group of substances called metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)—emerging materials currently being developed for highly promising fuel storage, as well as greenhouse gas elimination.

These MOFs were previously thought to only exist in laboratories as artificial “designer solids,” and have never been known to occur in nature; until now.

Friščić had to replicate the two minerals in the lab to see that they were similar to MOFs. A group of researchers then set out to track down the actual decades-old samples to analyze their structures, and guess what? Friščić was right!

Why Are They Important?

MOFs are materials that can serve as molecular sponges that soak up gases like hydrogen and carbon dioxide. It is believed that MOFs could potentially be used to lock away excess CO2 for hundreds of years while keeping oxygen free-flowing. This could just be what we need in this age of global warming.

http://futurism.com/newly-discovered-wonder-material-could-let-us-lock-away-excess-co2/

Newly Discovered ‘Wonder Material’ Could Let Us Lock Away Excess CO2

Newly Discovered ‘Wonder Material’ Could Let Us Lock Away Excess CO2

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