In industrial sites around the world, factories and power plants release streams of gases into the air that can be harmful to the environment. Those emissions also contain valuable chemicals and byproducts that could be captured, recycled, and reused. By separating and recovering those gases before they are released, industries could cut waste and operate more efficiently.
That challenge drives Fateme Rezaei and her research team at the University of Miami College of Engineering. Her work focuses on studying materials that can trap and separate specific gases at the molecular level.
A new $650,000 federal grant from the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Basic Energy Sciences, supporting three and a half years of research, is helping advance that effort. Rezaei, a professor in the Department of Chemical, Environmental, and Materials Engineering, leads the Adsorption and Separation Research Lab, where her team explores porous materials that function like microscopic sponges. These materials can capture certain molecules while allowing others to pass through, making them a key component for applications such as carbon capture and industrial purification.
The project centers on a promising class of materials called covalent organic frameworks, or COFs. Made from lightweight elements, COFs are durable and highly porous. Their structure can be customized at the atomic level, giving researchers a powerful tool for separating and storing gases.
Although COFs have performed well in laboratory settings, Rezaei and her co-principal investigator, Professor Chris Wilmer from the University of Pittsburgh, are examining how they behave when exposed to the complex gas mixtures found in real industrial environments. Under those conditions, multiple gases often compete for the same spaces inside a material, which can significantly affect its efficiency.
To study these effects, the team will combine advanced experimental techniques, including infrared spectroscopy, neutron scattering, and nuclear magnetic resonance, with high-precision computer modeling from Wilmer's group. This approach will provide a detailed molecular picture of how gases move, interact, and bind within COFs and how those processes influence the materials' performance and stability.
This Department of Energy research bridges molecular-level science with real-world engineering, showing how better materials can create measurable improvements in efficiency. The project could help shape the next generation of industrial systems designed to lower energy costs, reduce waste, and make manufacturing processes cleaner and more effective.
