Materials chemistry: cooperative carbon capture.

Abstract

Enzymes bind carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in a highly precise way, whereas synthetic materials just passively adsorb it. Or do they? A study of compounds called metal–organic frameworks now challenges this picture. See Article p.303 Advanced solid adsorbents are being investigated as potential agents for efficient gas separation technologies that could help make carbon capture technologies more economical. This paper probes the mechanism of carbon dioxide adsorption of a previously reported diamine-appended metal-organic framework. This material demonstrates unusual and potentially practically useful adsorption properties. The authors find that CO2 adsorbs through insertion into the highly stable metal-amine bonds of the metal-organic framework. As a consequence of the homogenous and perfect spacing of amines, as dictated by the framework's topology, the insertion of a single CO2 molecule induces neighbouring sites to also adsorb CO2 in an unprecedented chain reaction process.