Half a pound of this powder can remove as much CO₂ from the air as a tree, scientists say
Half a pound of this powder can remove as much CO₂ from the air as a tree, scientists say
Berkeley chemists have created a reusable material that pulls carbon dioxide from the air and holds onto it until it can be stored.
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The paper can be accessed from this site: https://yaghi.berkeley.edu/publications.html
The molecular structure of the powder:
The notable thing seems to not be that it can absorb (and desorb) CO2, but that it can undergo hundreds of cycles with little degredation.
I'm not a chemist, but from what I can tell it's created using cesium salt as a precursor or catalyst. This doesn't sound like something punks can safely mix in a bathtub.
I might be a chemist, and I'm not too concerned about the toxicity of the cesium carbonate. I'd be more concerned about the toxicity of the azide and azidirine intermediates. But if some "punks" can pull off a Knovenegal condensation and a Staudinger reaction in a bathtub, I would be quite impressed with their resourcefulness.
It sounds like extremely toxic organic chemistry. I imagine the waste from the reactions has special disposal requirements. Do you think the powder is hazardous as well?