A team of chemical engineers from Queen's University and University of Liverpool, UK has developed a new porous liquid that can absorb large amounts of gas. An immediate application of this research work is 'carbon capture' the green chemical process that involves trapping of CO2 from power plants and other factories so that it does not get escaped in the atmosphere and thus doesn't cause harm to the environment around us. It is interesting to note here that most porous materials we know so far are solids. Be it the substance from which we make plastic bottles or sponges, it's a solid having a lot of permanent holes or pores.


The work done by Queen's University researchers has resulted in the formation of a special porous liquid that has several empty holes which are perfect for dissolving large quantities of poisonous gases from the atmosphere.

Most solid porous materials feature properties such as lower energy penalties in adsorption–desorption cycles. However, they are difficult to be used in conventional flow processes. Instead, if fluid materials with permanent porosity are used, they could offer many technological advantages.

To achieve this, the researchers designed cage molecules that have a well-defined pore space and that are highly soluble in solvents whose molecules are too large to enter the pores. Only time can tell how long it takes for this research to find commercial and industrial applications.

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