CO2 levels in our atmosphere are reaching alarming numbers, speeding up global warming at an extremely concerning rate. Therefore, finding ways to capture and store the carbon dioxide we produce is vitally important if we wish to lower greenhouse gases and slow down the rate of global warming. Unfortunately, existing carbon capture methods only work effectively for concentrated carbon sources, such as the exhaust released from power plants. We cannot use the same technology to capture the carbon dioxide present in ambient air.
The Importance of Carbon Capture in Ambient Air

CO2 levels are now 50% higher than they were before the Industrial Revolution. Therefore, we need direct air capture to try and combat this issue. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, without finding a way to capture carbon in the air, we will not be able to reach our goal of limiting the rise of global averages to 1.5 degrees Celsius. However, chemists from the University of California have now developed a unique absorbing material that can potentially help us achieve negative emissions. The material is referred to as a covalent organic framework (COF) and has the ability to capture CO2 without degradation by contaminants, which is something that current DAC methods cannot achieve.
Impressive Results

According to the senior author of the paper, Omar Yaghi, “We took a powder of this material, put it in a tube, and we passed Berkeley air — just outdoor air — into the material to see how it would perform, and it was beautiful. It cleaned the air entirely of CO2. Everything”. He added that he was excited as there is currently nothing that comes close in terms of performance. This material could potentially be incorporated into existing carbon capture systems to effectively remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as well as those from refinery emissions.
200 Grams Can Remove as Much Carbon Dioxide As A Tree Annually

The first author of the study, Zihui Zhou, has stated that 200 grams of this material can capture 20 kilograms of carbon dioxide every year – the same amount a tree captures in the same period. According to Zhou, “Flue gas capture is a way to slow down climate change because you are trying not to release CO2 to the air. Direct air capture is a method to take us back to like it was 100 or more years ago”. At the moment, the levels of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere exceed 420 ppm. However, this number will increase to around 500 ppm before flue gas capture technologies have been fully developed and utilized. Therefore, direct air capture will ultimately need to be employed if we hope to decrease the levels to around 330 – 400 ppm.
The Development of MOFs and COFs

COFs and MOFs are both materials that have been created to trap carbon dioxide and other gases. Both of these materials contain very small pores that enable them to store large amounts of gas. However, they differ in structure with MOFs using metal atoms and COFs using carbon-based bonds. The inventor of both these materials, Omar Yaghi has been working on using MOFs for carbon capture since the 1990s already. However, they found that MOFs degrade over time in reaction to the amines present. It was at this point that they started working on COFs, which are capable of withstanding harsh conditions while capturing carbon dioxide effectively. According to Yaghi, “This COF has a strong chemically and thermally stable backbone, it requires less energy, and we have shown it can withstand 100 cycles with no loss of capacity. No other material has been shown to perform like that”.
The Role of Artificial Intelligence

Yaghi also believes that COF and MOF design will be sped up by using artificial intelligence. This is because AI can identify the specific chemical conditions needed to synthesize the material’s crystalline structure. Yaghi stated that they are “We’re very, very excited about blending AI with the chemistry that we’ve been doing”. His research center currently uses AI to develop versions of COFs and MOFs that are easy to deploy and cost-efficient. Yaghi collaborated with several other people on this study, including Laura Gagliardi, a computational scientist from the University of Chicago, and Joachim Sauer from Humboldt University in Berlin.
The Bottom Line on Carbon Capture

As climate change develops at an alarming rate, we are constantly looking for more effective methods of dealing with it. Luckily, COF technology offers us a promising solution for reducing greenhouse gases in our Earth’s atmosphere. By employing new AI technologies, they hope to streamline this process and develop new materials that can help lower carbon dioxide levels. So far, COF technology seems to be the most promising new carbon capture method that we have available to us.