Understanding the Formation of Polymer-Amino Acid Assemblies and Their Interaction with CO2 to Achieve Direct Carbon Removal from the Atmosphere

Principal Investigator: Xudong Wang, professor of materials science and engineering

Co-Principal Investigators:

Padma Gopalan, professor of materials science and engineering

Reid Van Lehn, associate professor of chemical engineering

Bu Wang, assistant professor of civil engineering

Leadership in advanced manufacturing has been a critical factor for U.S. technology development, economic prosperity and national security since the 20th century. Now, our planet emphasizes environmental-stewardship and sustainability as major considerations for future manufacturing.

This project envisions that bio-derived crystals obtained from scalable growth methods will establish an essential material cornerstone to alleviate the energy and environmental crisis. Amino acids (AA), the most basic building blocks of life, show intriguing physical properties for applications in many energy- and environment-related areas, such as capturing CO2 via hydration which mimics natural mechanisms. This project is designed to understand how AA molecules assemble together with metal ions into crystals on different polymer surfaces, and how these AA crystals interact with CO2 to achieve optimal carbon-capture performance. This project will generate critical preliminary data and establish the core leadership team to pursue external center-level funding.