By Tessa McLean,California Editor

Oct 25, 2024 (SFGate.com)

UC Berkeley scientists recently made a discovery that could help potentially mitigate the effects of climate change.Courtesy of Zihui Zhou, UC Berkeley

Trees have long done the heavy lifting of sequestering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but no matter how big the planting spree, nature won’t catch up to human impact on our warming planet. But UC Berkeley scientists recently made a discovery that could help potentially mitigate the effects of climate change, and it’s just the beginning of more work with the groundbreaking material.

The specially designed, porous yellow powder dubbed COF-999 the group created can capture carbon dioxide from the air, keeping it from being released until it can be moved underground or to a capture facility. Published this week in the journal Nature, the research details the unique substance and its potential uses to address climate change. 

“We were so excited when we obtained such exceptional results from the experiments,” Omar Yaghi, a chemistry professor at UC Berkeley and the study’s lead author, told SFGATE via email. “This is a game-changer and COF-999 is essentially the best materials to date for direct carbon capture from open air.”

UC Berkeley scientists recently made a discovery that could help potentially mitigate the effects of climate change.Courtesy of Zihui Zhou, UC Berkeley

Yaghi’s lab has worked on carbon capture since the 1990s and began work on these crystalline structures in 2005. The innovative substance has lots of tiny holes, making it “great for storing gases or liquids, much like a sponge holds water,” Yaghi said. 

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that has contributed to the planet’s overall warming, influencing extreme weather and having other adverse environmental effects. 

COF-999 is incredibly durable and can be used again and again, as much as 100 times, without a degradation in its performance. While it could take one to two years for the powder to be usable in large-scale applications, Yaghi co-founded Atoco, an Irvine company, to commercialize his research and expand it beyond just carbon capture and storage. One potential use could be harvesting water from desert air for drinking water, using the same molecular structure.

“Another thing is that we need a strong determination among officials and industries to make carbon capture a high priority. Things have to change, but I believe that direct carbon capture from air is very doable,” Yaghi said about making a large impact with such a material.

Oct 25, 2024

Tessa McLean

CALIFORNIA EDITOR

Tessa McLean is the California editor for SFGATE. She joined the team in 2019, spending four years helming the local section. She now writes features with a statewide lens, telling stories about the issues, trends and news that matter in the Golden State. To submit tips, comments or messages about why you love California, please reach out to her at tessa.mclean@sfgate.com.