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Researchers from Saarland University and htw saar have now authored an important review article that details how advanced materials can be used for the efficient and cost-effective capture and storage of CO₂. Their article has recently been published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.
The following text has been machine translated from the German with no human editing.
It is a kind of Holy Grail of (applied) science: scientists around the world are searching for the most efficient methods possible to collect CO₂ as it is produced and then either store it safely, destroy it or recycle it. Although there are currently common methods for capturing and storing CO₂ (carbon dioxide) . However, these CCS technologies are all quite expensive (costing between 50 and 150 dollars per tonne of CO₂) and have limited effectiveness. Even methods for removing CO₂ that has already been emitted from the atmosphere (negative emission technologies, NETs) cannot significantly reduce the amount of greenhouse gases on their own.
New approaches are therefore needed to tackle this pressing problem, as climate change continues to advance rapidly, unaffected by storms, droughts and melting ice ( ). In addition to the undisputedly best approach of releasing as little carbon dioxide as possible, scientists are therefore also researching complementary methods to get the still enormous CO₂emissions under control. This requires the use of resource-saving on-site solutions at the point of origin, as well as mobile carbon capture technologies.
In addition to CCS and NET, another way to capture the gas is to use so-called stimulus-responsive organic materials. Markus Gallei, Professor of Polymer Chemistry at Saarland University, knows what this involves. He recently published a review article on this type of CO2capture in the high-ranking journal "Advanced Functional Materials" together with his colleague Jian Zhou and Marc Deissenroth-Uhrig, Professor of Renewable Energies at htw saar. The article was even featured on the cover of the current print edition.
"The focus of these technologies is on the 'switchability' to absorb or release CO₂," explains Markus Gallei. By exposing a specific material to a stimulus, this material can absorbCO₂and release it again in a targeted manner when the stimulus is applied. Such stimuli can be temperature, electricity, mechanical stress, light, pH value or even magnetism. "These stimuli can also be combined with each other. In this way, we could develop compact, efficient systems with intelligent plastics and organic materials that require much less energy than current systems. This is one of the main problems with conventional CCS systems," says Markus Gallei, who has focused his research on the development of efficient polymers. Some of his research projects deal with the question of how CO₂can be bound and, above all, released again in the most resource-efficient way possible.
"The crucial thing here is that the CO₂for such stimulus-responsive materials is as pure as possible in order to be usable," explains the chemist. Therefore, these processes are not suitable for all man-made sources ofCO₂. "In steel production, for example, a lot of other substances are produced in addition to CO₂. Such methods would not be the best choice here. But compact systems based on this technology could be used in 'mobile combustion engines' or in smaller industrial companies," explains Markus Gallei.
"Of course, one might ask, 'What's new about that?'" admits the chemistry professor. After all, in a strictly scientific sense, he and his colleagues are not reporting anything new in the article; they are "only" summarising the state of the art in this field. "But until now, such an overview has been lacking in the specialist literature. The technologies we are focusing on are not yet established, but we believe they offer great potential." The fact that the article is being published in a highly respected journal such as Advanced Functional Materials (impact factor 19) and is even making it onto the front page is proof that Markus Gallei, Marc Deissenroth-Uhrig and Jian Zhou are right in their assessment.
It is also no coincidence that the idea came from three authors from Saarland. "The work was carried out as part of the ENFOSAAR project, which is funded by the Saarland state government through the Saarland Transformation Fund," says Markus Gallei. In this €23 million consortium, htw saar and the University are working together with Fraunhofer IZFP, the IZES Institute and DFKI to research how the transformation to cope with climate and structural change can be achieved. "Thanks to the Transformation Fund, Saarland can play a leading role in tackling the issues of the future," summarises Markus Gallei.
If their work can serve as an overview and inspiration for other scientists worldwide in their own research, much will have been gained. After all, getting the CO₂concentration in the atmosphere under control does not require a single Holy Grail that solves the problem on its own. Rather, it is many small "grails" that must work together to remove the gas from the air or prevent it from getting there in the first place. And some of these "grails" could have their origins in Saarland.
Original publication:
J. Zhou, M. Deissenroth-Uhrig, and M. Gallei, "Advances in Stimuli-Responsive Organic Materials and Polymers toward Intelligent CO₂Capture." Adv. Funct. Mater. (2025): e20959. https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202520959
Further information:
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Markus Gallei
Tel.: (0681) 3024840
Email: markus.gallei(at)uni-saarland.de
