A chemical element so visually striking it was named for a goddess shows a “Goldilocks” level of reactivity – neither too much nor too little – that makes it a strong candidate as a carbon scrubbing tool.
Researchers in the College of Science have demonstrated the potential of an inexpensive nanomaterial to scrub carbon dioxide from industrial emissions. The findings, published in Cell Reports Physical Science, are important because improved carbon capture methods are key to addressing climate change, said Oregon State's Kyriakos Stylianou, who led the study.
For many OSU materials scientists, fighting climate change means finding cleaner energy sources, developing sustainable alternatives to wasteful industry processes, and drawing on unconventional means to reduce the pollution already in the environment.
Carbon dioxide can be harvested from smokestacks and used to create commercially valuable chemicals thanks to a novel compound developed by a scientific collaboration led by Assistant Professor of Chemistry Kyriakos Stylianou.
Oregon State University chemistry professor May Nyman has been selected as one of the leaders of a $24 million federal effort to develop technologies for combating climate change by extracting carbon from the air. The work by Nyman, OSU computational chemist Tim Zuehlsdorff and Argonne’s Ahmet Uysal and Michael Sinwell is part of a nine-project carbon capture and storage mission being funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.
An international research collaboration, led by Kyriakos Stylianou, an assistant professor of chemistry at Oregon State University, has taken an important step toward the commercially viable manufacture of biobutanol, an alcohol whose strong potential as a fuel for gasoline-powered engines could pave the path away from fossil fuels. The researchers are now looking to partner with industry to try to scale up the separation method using the new metal organic framework, says Stylianou, the study’s corresponding author. If it scales well, it could be an important milestone on the road toward non-reliance on fossil fuels.
