Capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) before it enters the atmosphere is an important way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, despite decades of development, these technologies have not been widely adopted. The main reason is simple. Most existing methods are expensive and inefficient. For instance, the widely used aqueous amine scrubbing process requires heating large volumes of liquid to temperatures above 100 °C to release the captured CO2 and reset the system. This high energy demand significantly increases operating costs and limits large-scale use.

Carbon-Based Adsorbents as a Lower-Energy Alternative
Solid carbon materials have emerged as a promising option. These materials are affordable and have a high surface area, allowing them to capture CO2 and release it using less heat, particularly when nitrogen-containing functional groups are present. Even so, there has been a major challenge. Traditional synthesis methods place these nitrogen groups randomly across the material, often in mixed forms. This randomness makes it difficult to determine which specific arrangement is responsible for better performance.

New Viciazite Materials With Controlled Nitrogen Structure
To solve this issue, a research team led by Associate Professor Yasuhiro Yamada from the Graduate School of Engineering and Associate Professor Tomonori Ohba from the Graduate School of Science at Chiba University, Japan, developed a new category of carbon materials known as ‘viciazites.’ These materials are designed so that nitrogen groups are positioned next to each other in a controlled and predictable way. The study, published in the journal Carbon, was co-authored by Mr. Kota Kondo, also from Chiba University.