Capture and sequestration has been touted as a way to combat rising global carbon dioxide emissions, but available methods are energy intensive, and its low reactivity makes it difficult to capture and convert the gas efficiently. A new material that can selectively capture CO₂ molecules and efficiently convert them into useful organic materials has been developed by researchers from Jiangsu Normal University, China, and Kyoto The porous coordination polymer has propeller-shaped molecular structures that enable selective capture of CO2 and its efficient conversion into useful materials. Source: Mindy Takamiya/Kyoto UniversityUniversity, Japan.

The metal-organic framework is composed of zinc metal ions and propeller-like ligands that rotate to effect CO₂ trapping. X-ray structural analysis confirmed that this porous coordination polymer is 10 times more efficient than other similar materials in selectively capturing CO₂ molecules.

The propeller-like structures undergo rotational rearrangement in response to the release and capture of gas molecules, resulting in slight changes to the molecular channels within the metal-organic framework. The material then functions as a molecular sieve that can recognize molecules by size and shape. The efficiency of the recyclable porous coordination polymer catalyst did not decrease after 10 reaction cycles.

The captured carbon can be used to synthesize polyurethane, a material with diverse applications including clothing, domestic appliances and packaging.

A research paper on the new CO₂ capture material is published in Nature Communications.