A PhD student at the University of California, USA, Zhou Zhihui, has discovered a new material capable of rapidly absorbing carbon dioxide from the air. This breakthrough could be a significant advancement in the fight against climate change.
Born in Henan Province, China, Zhou Zhihui developed a substance that appears as a yellow powder. During an experiment, he drew air from outside his lab and passed it through a tube containing the yellow powder. Within just five minutes, the carbon dioxide level in the air dropped from 460 to nearly zero.
Zhou’s professor, world-renowned chemist Omar Yaghi, stated that even after being used a hundred times, the yellow powder did not lose its effectiveness. Once the absorbed carbon is safely transferred, the material can be reused multiple times.
Zhou has already developed an even more advanced version of the yellow powder, which can absorb at least four times more gas than the original material. He is now working on making it suitable for industrial use.