Three approaches on how inorganic porous solids can be used for a wide range of environmental applications

In recent year our group has developed highly porous versions of three inorganic materials with interesting properties.

These are porous amorphous calcium carbonate (PACC), mesoporous magnesium carbonate (MMC) and amorphous calcium phosphate (ACP). They are all made up of nanometer-sized particles aggregated to form a porous structure. The structure itself resembles that found on a cookie, where the crumbs are the nanoparticles.

We have previously characterised these materials extensively and have made a number of application focused optimisation of these materials.

Based on our detailed understanding of the properties and potentials of these materials, we will tailor these highly porous materials for three key environmental applications.

These applications were chosen according to their societal relevance and our knowledge in our materials are: 1) high temperature CO2 capture, 2) adsorption of perfluorooctanesulfonic compounds (PFAS/PFOS) and 3) as a catalyst support for acetone oxidation and other environmental catalytic processes.

We will adopt three different approaches in order to produce suitable porous inorganic materials for these three target applications: 1) synthesis of composite materials, 2) surface modification and 3) loading with other active compounds.

We will make use of our extensive knowledge and experience to produce a number of porous inorganic materials with suitable functionalities for the listed applications.