91看片网

In Chil-Hung Cheng鈥檚 lab, something is always cooking. Cheng is developing recipes for creating porous materials with structures that can selectively capture different molecules. The technology could help lead to a greener world, particularly in the case of coal plants where porous membranes could be used to bind harmful greenhouse gases before they reach the atmosphere.

"Porous materials have phenomenal functionalities,鈥� says Cheng. 鈥淭he critical point is figuring out how to synthesize the unique structure, which is what I'm focusing on.鈥�

However, predicting membrane structure is a challenging process. 鈥淵ou put liquid inside a container, bake it, and sometimes it鈥檚 a needle shape and sometimes it鈥檚 a disk,鈥� says Cheng. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 understand how it forms yet. But in the next five years, I want to find out.鈥�