Carbonia- Turning CO2 into glass

Dry ice creates toughened glass



A form of solid carbon dioxide that could be used to make ultra-hard glass or coatings for microelectronic devices has been discovered.
The material, named amorphous carbonia, was created by scientists from the University of Florence in Italy.

Writing in the journal Nature, the team say the material was theoretically possible but had never been created. It was made by squeezing dry ice, a form of carbon dioxide used to create smoke in stage shows, at huge pressure. Scientists are interested in the new material because of the potential applications. Also they believe it could give them clues to the processes that happen in the centre of huge gas giant planets like Jupiter.

snip:

Recently scientists in California coaxed carbon dioxide molecules to form a solid network by applying extreme pressure at high temperatures. Their discovery could lead to a way of storing or disposing of carbon dioxide gas, a major contributor to global warming, deep in the earth's interior. To create the glassy amorphous carbonia, the team led by Professors Mario Santoro and Federico Gorelli heated solid carbon dioxide between diamond teeth at pressures over 400,000 times greater than atmospheric pressure. The material was then cooled to room temperature to form the glass. Atomic analysis of the material confirmed the glass had a similar structure to silica, but is thought to be much harder and stiffer, like diamond.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5083222.stm

Comment: they are a long way from making this stuff on a large scale, but what a cool way to store CO2!

what with the energy required to run the machine.

We can harvest all that excess CO2 out of the atmosphere, freeze it, squeeze it, and use the amorphous carbonia for technology and research. I like the sound of that!

No more melting ice caps, no more disappearing snows of Kilimanjaro, no more drowning polar bears, no more drought in the Himalayas. God love ya, carbonia!

:toast:

Applying the pressure required to solidify carbon dioxide requires a lot of energy. We will have to build new power plants to supply the energy to solidify the carbon from the old plants. It kinda defeats the purpose of solidifying the CO2 in the first place.

energy to sequester CO2 (or just carbon).

First thing to do is plant forests... then crush granite (ok, that takes some energy), and scatter the dust on the forest floor.

then, if you really want it to leave the atmosphere for a long time, cut the trees and bury them deep.

Problem with all such solutions is the SCALE that is needed.

For those who haven't read Kurt Vonnegut's novel "Cat's Cradle," Ice-9 is the immensely rare substance that ultimately destroys all life on earth by changing all water molecules to Ice-9.

See the cat? See the cradle?

Oh well.
:)

it goes back to CO2 gas. There's very, very little chance that this material will ever be isolable for any length of time at STP.

Even if it were what is called a 'metastable' phase, that is, one which reverted to a more stable phase sufficiently slowly to be isolated and studied, all it would take would be catalysis by ordinary water (in even trace amounts) to trigger the reversion.

Many different substances undergo phase transitions to form lattices at very high pressure. Both oxygen and hydrogen, normally O2 and H2, form metallic solids at sufficiently high pressure. Release the pressure, and they go right back to diatomic solids. No reason for CO2 to be any different.