Liquid material with porous structure introduced

An international joint research team has claimed to have synthesized the world's first liquid material with a permanent porous structure. This liquid has an extremely strong ability to absorb and dissolve gases, which is expected to enhance the reaction efficiency of many current chemical reactions and gain applications in scenarios such as carbon capture, according to a paper published in the 12th issue of the journal Nature.  The international joint research team, led by Queen's University Belfast and the University of Liverpool, synthesized a new type of liquid and found that these liquids can dissolve large amounts of gas by absorbing it into a pore. The three-year research project has paved the way for a number of more environmentally friendly and efficient chemical processes, including carbon capture, a technology that collects and stores carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, steel mills and chemical plants to prevent them from entering the atmosphere.  Stewart James, a professor in the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Queen's University Belfast, said the artificial formation of permanent porous structures in materials is a major advance in human science. The technology can be used to make a range of products, from plastic bottles to gasoline. Previously, however, almost all porous materials were solid. The new design of a special "bottom-up" liquid structure compensates for the lack of molecular shape of the liquid, which ultimately prevents it from filling all the space and creates a large number of pore structures. It is these pores that give them the ability to absorb gases extremely well.  According to James, the field needs to be further explored to expand into more applications, and it is highly likely to lead to many new chemical processes in the future. "We have successfully demonstrated a new principle - the ability of liquids to absorb gases can be significantly enhanced by just creating porous structures in the liquid. This property, in the long term, has many potential and interesting applications."