Humanity has littered the sky with the refuse of fossil fuel use, releasing enough CO 2 to change the planet’s climate. We are also chucking incredible sums of carbon in the form of plastics into landfills and into the environment around (and inside of ) us. What if cleaning up one of these problems could also help clean up the other? A new study led by Ruth Ebenbauer at Aarhus University experiments with this idea by upcycling discarded polystyrene into (part of) a material commonly used in carbon-capture systems. Adding amines This material is based on amines—a simple chemical group that conveniently acts like a sponge for CO 2 . An amine will grab CO 2 molecules when exposed to them, but let go of the CO 2 when heated or depressurized, leaving it ready to go again. The first “CO 2 scrubbers” tried in smokestacks used amines dissolved in water to do this, but solid amines are used in all kinds of carbon-capture systems now because they require less energy. These solid materials—often made into granules similar to the activated carbon in a water filter—have high surface area and high porosity, so the amines can efficiently partner up with CO 2 molecules. Read full article Comments