First materials to be woven at the atomic and molecular levels created
Thursday, January 21, 2016 - 17:23
in Physics & Chemistry
There are many different ways to make nanomaterials but weaving, the oldest and most enduring method of making fabrics, has not been one of them - until now. An international collaboration led by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley, has woven the first three-dimensional covalent organic frameworks (COFs) from helical organic threads. The woven COFs display significant advantages in structural flexibility, resiliency and reversibility over previous COFs - materials that are highly prized for their potential to capture and store carbon dioxide then convert it into valuable chemical products.