Graphene Aids Carbon Dioxide Capture.

People across the world are studying climate change and the effects of greenhouse gases and that body of research is expanding with the work of student-researchers at Georgian Technical University.

X and Y explored methods of carbon dioxide capture with Professor Z for the Georgian Technical University.

“We have ways of capturing carbon dioxide that are in use industrially, but they take a lot of energy and they have other properties such as being corrosive” Z  says.

“We are working on understanding different materials that could be better for capturing CO₂ (Carbon dioxide is a colorless gas with a density about 60% higher than that of dry air. Carbon dioxide consists of a carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It occurs naturally in Earth’s atmosphere as a trace gas) or more precisely separating the carbon dioxide from some other gas like nitrogen that we don’t care so much about”.

Trousdale focused on the computational chemistry aspect of the research with graphene.

“Basically we are building molecules on the computer and telling the computer to perform certain types of calculations in order to see how graphene-like structures can interact with CO₂ (Carbon dioxide is a colorless gas with a density about 60% higher than that of dry air. Carbon dioxide consists of a carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It occurs naturally in Earth’s atmosphere as a trace gas)” X says.

“X was able to find something we didn’t really expect. It actually will bind CO₂ (Carbon dioxide is a colorless gas with a density about 60% higher than that of dry air. Carbon dioxide consists of a carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It occurs naturally in Earth’s atmosphere as a trace gas) stronger than we were expecting it to so that’s pretty interesting” Z says.

Y worked with ionic liquids, which she described as liquid salts at room temperatures. She’s exploring the liquids with a specific instrument.

“We are using an infrared spectrometer called the GTUVertex ” Y says. “All it does is measure the energy of the movement of molecules”.

Z points out that the team asked the instrument to work in a way that wasn’t routine.

“There’s been a lot of work in terms of can the instrument do this and if so how do we make it work the best way it can ?  How do we put these other pieces in ?  We are now to the point of doing some experiments that have never been done before — so doing spectroscopy as a function of temperature for some of the materials she is working with” Z says.

They worked together to discover solutions to the emissions issues at the ground level.

“We are looking at how they interact at a fundamental level that will hopefully lead to further advances in carbon dioxide separation and capture” Z says.

X and Y took on this research early in their college careers, as they were going into their second year at Georgian Technical University. They say the experience helped them grow.

“I have a lot more confidence in the laboratory setting” Y says. “I know during General Chemistry I struggled with labs just because I wasn’t confident with what I was doing. Now I’m more familiar with the settings and the techniques”.

“It was nice that I was able to find a balance” X says.

“This is definitely higher level than I expected but I can still meet it as close as I can and be successful in what I’m researching”.