Dissolved Carbon Dioxide From Oceans Can Be Captured Using Nanojars to Lessen Climate Change

Carbon is an element that is found everywhere. It is the foundation of life on Earth that could take many forms, such as carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere. Its significance to life on Earth is immeasurable as it is the key to the food that sustains humans.

National Ocean Service explained that the carbon cycle is when carbon atoms travel from the atmosphere to Earth and then back to the air in an unchanging, constant process. Carbons are mainly stocked in rocks and sediment, while the rest are found in the atmosphere, living organisms, and oceans.

However, too much carbon also contributes to global warming and climate change. According to Earth Observatory, around 30% of carbon dioxide put into the atmosphere diffused into the ocean. Dissolving carbon dioxide could form carbonic acid that increases acidity and water, returns some carbon into the atmosphere, and contributes to climate change.

Nanojars Remove Carbon Dioxide and Toxic Ions From Oceans

As Phys.org reported, scientists have now developed a new way to capture dissolved carbon dioxide to lessen its effects on the warming planet.

The study, titled "Atmospheric CO2 Sequestration by Binding One or Two CO32- Ions in Nanojars," presented in a meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), shows that using nanojars smaller than a human hair can be used to capture dissolved carbon dioxide and toxic ions in oceans to lessen the contribution to climate change.

According to Phys.org, nanojars are made up of multiple repeating units of the copper ion formed into tiny containers intended to capture anions, especially ions with a -2 charge, like arsenate, chromate, carbonate, etc. phosphate is present. When added to an organic solvent, it forms the nanojars with the -2 charge at the center tightly bound.

Gellert Mezei, Ph.D., said they initially intended to make nanojars to extract harmful negatively charged ions from water but then found that nanojars also strongly bind with carbonate.

So, they decided to use nanojars to remove toxic negatively charged ions from water by extracting arsenate and chromate to drinking water below US Environmental Protection Agency ratings. They observed that it has a higher affinity to carbonate and added a molecule called 1,10-phenanthroline to two carbonate ions.

Moreover, the team made nanojars that are selective to certain anions to improve the nanojars. They made a nanojar that collects carbonate specifically using two pyrazoles tethered by an ethylene linker as the building block. This will be important in capturing many types of harmful -2 charged ions in the water.

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How Did They Remove Toxic Ions in the Water?

Phys.org reported that removing anions or negatively charged ions from water involved adding the solvent that contains the nanojars. It will not mix on the water as it will only form an organic layer on top where anions could enter, Mezei explains.

Then, the nanojars will wrap around the anions to trap them in an organic phase without being mixed with the water molecules so they can easily be separated. To remove the nanojars, researchers would treat the organic layer with weak acid that causes nanojars to fall apart and releases the negatively charged ions to be disposed of or recycled.

The team has been applying the new technology to real-life settings but noted that it would require collaboration with engineers. The experiments so far have only been conducted in laboratory settings, and they hope to conduct an experiment in large volumes of water, like the lake.