New metal-organic framework eliminates toxic sulfur dioxide gas 99. 99999%
- Select a language for the TTS:
- UK English Female
- UK English Male
- US English Female
- US English Male
- Australian Female
- Australian Male
- Language selected: (auto detect) - EN
Play all audios:

An international team has developed a robust material that can selectively take in toxic sulfur dioxide gas at record concentrations and preserve it for use in chemical production. The
researchers verified its performance using a combination of techniques that included X-ray experiments at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s (Berkeley Lab’s) Advanced Light Source
(ALS). Sulfur dioxide emissions are typically produced by power plants, other industrial facilities, trains, ships, and heavy equipment, and can be harmful to human health and the
environment. The team developed porous, cagelike, stable copper-containing molecules known as metal-organic frameworks or MOFs that are designed to separate sulfur dioxide (SO2) gas from
other gases. The team exposed the MOF material, dubbed MFM-170, to simulated exhaust gases and found that it efficiently separated out SO2 from the gas mixture at elevated temperatures even
in the presence of water. Existing techniques to remove SO2 from pollution streams can produce a lot of solid and liquid waste and may only remove 60-95 percent of the toxic gas, researchers
noted, while the MOF has been shown to eliminate SO2 down to a level below 0.1 parts per million — or 99.99999 percent SO2-free. Their study was published on October 14, 2019, in the
journal _Nature Materials_. ### Reference: “Reversible coordinative binding and separation of sulfur dioxide in a robust metal–organic framework with open copper sites” by Gemma L. Smith,
Jennifer E. Eyley, Xue Han, Xinran Zhang, Jiangnan Li, Nicholas M. Jacques, Harry G. W. Godfrey, Stephen P. Argent, Laura J. McCormick McPherson, Simon J. Teat, Yongqiang Cheng, Mark D.
Frogley, Gianfelice Cinque, Sarah J. Day, Chiu C. Tang, Timothy L. Easun, Svemir Rudić, Anibal J. Ramirez-Cuesta, Sihai Yang and Martin Schröder, 14 October 2019, _Nature Materials_. DOI:
10.1038/s41563-019-0495-0 The team, led by University of Manchester scientists, used X-rays produced at the ALS to explore the detailed molecular structure of the MOF crystals. They also
performed experiments at Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Diamond Light Source, ISIS Neutron, Muon Source, and Manchester University in the U.K. NEVER MISS A BREAKTHROUGH: JOIN THE
SCITECHDAILY NEWSLETTER.