The global problem of climate change facing us requires a rethinking of how humans make and utilize essential materials throughout their lifecycle. Nature teaches us how to create materials that continuously repair and self-heal using carbon from the atmosphere as an alternative to petroleum. Plants and trees grow and repair themselves by fixing, or chemically reacting through photosynthesis, the potent greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into the molecules that comprise their structure, which humans ultimately use as wood, fibers and food. Similarly, some forms of bacteria (methanotrophs) use atmospheric methane – a far more potent greenhouse gas – to reproduce and form adhesive biofilms. Public messaging focusing on carbon dioxide as a climate-altering greenhouse gas has under-emphasized the problem of methane in the atmosphere, known to force 80 times the atmospheric warming. We have pioneered the concept of natural analogs to carbon dioxide and methane carbon fixation to produce synthetic materials suitable to replace those that humans currently derive from petroleum. Such materials actively repair and can have significantly extended or even infinite lifetimes, avoiding inclusion in the more than 35M metric tons of polymer waste that ends up in landfill annually. This presentation will outline our recent work on materials that fix carbon from ambient atmospheric carbon dioxide, including recent prototypes and reaction engineering analysis on the limits and promise of such materials. The invention of methanotrophic materials – those that harvest atmospheric methane – is especially promising since they offer a dual benefit of materials with sustainable life cycles while scavenging an extremely damaging emission (methane) driving global climate change. Such materials could benefit a wide range of environmentally protective technologies, from self-healing natural gas infrastructure to consumer products that can be permanently recycled and avoid the landfill altogether.

Carbon fixing material systems

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ACS Spring 2023

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