The amount of carbon dioxide emitted yearly is continually rising across the globe, despite growing awareness about the harmful effects the greenhouse gas has. So, researchers are looking into ways to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Aside from switching to clean energy that doesn’t produce carbon dioxide, scientists are also working on preventing carbon dioxide from escaping into the atmosphere when its production is inevitable.

This process, a type of carbon capture, may finally be implemented commercially, thanks to a decades old material invented at University of California, Berkeley. There in the 1990s, Professor Omar Yaghi discovered Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs). MOFs are ultra-porous, crystalline polymers, or in simpler terms, a large molecule formed by many repeating subunits, with many holes. MOFs are made from metal ions (metal atoms missing an electron) linked by carbon-based molecules.

The MOFS self-assemble when the metal ions and carbon structures are put together in a solvent, and can be heavily customized by using different metals and types of carbon linkers. Since MOFs are so porous, they can be used to absorb and store many types of gases and liquids. They can also be made to bond to certain substances, by leaving metal ions unlinked. Certain types of MOFs are effective at absorbing and bonding to solely carbon dioxide.

Due to the cost of producton, for a long time MOFs were considered to be a lab-made curiosity, but not a material that had a practical use. However, scientists figured out how to cheaply produce carbon capturing MOFs at large scales, finally making this 35-year-old technology useful. These MOFS can be implemented for capturing carbon dioxide emitted by factories. By putting MOFS on smokestacks, carbon emissions of the factory can be reduced by up to 95%, significantly reducing global CO2 emissions.