CO₂MOF network

The escalating level of atmospheric carbon dioxide is one of the most critical environmental concerns of our age. The development of new materials and processes for the capture and use of carbon dioxide is one of the foremost challenges for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Amongst several candidate groups of new materials for CO₂ capture, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a very promising class of materials, possessing an enormous structural and chemical diversity.

Our multidisciplinary research team is drawn from seven institutions and from disciplines ranging over theoretical chemistry, inorganic chemistry, mathematics and chemical engineering. We have identified four key challenges requiring research in order to capture and use CO₂ on an industrial scale with MOF-based devices. Each of these will be the focus of one of our four research teams.

Our challenges are:

• the synthesis of novel MOF materials with exceptional CO₂ separation capacities
• the development of MOF materials with catalytic abilities for CO₂ conversion into usable products
• the scale-up and fabrication of membrane-based devices for integration of MOFs into industrial platforms
• the modelling, prediction and advanced characterisation of these new materials.

Latest News & Events

• "Solar sponge" soaks up CO₂ emissions

  

  10th February 2013: CO₂MOF researchers have published a paper in Angewandte Chemie describing a MOF with light-sensitive CO₂ adsorption. The work was classed by this eminent journal as a "Very Important Paper" (top 5%). Read more from Monash and CSIRO.

• Carbon capture in The Conversation

  

  13 February 2013: Associate Professor Bradely Ladewig (Monash University) explains in The Conversation the importance of carbon capture technologies.

• Aaron Thornton named Victorian Young Tall Poppy

  

  12 November 2012: Dr Aaron Thornton (CSIRO) was named a 2012 Victorian Young Tall Poppy, in recognition of his research in carbon dioxide separation.