Methane and carbon dioxide are the two main gases responsible for global warming. The removal of CO₂ from flue gases generally involves dissolving it in organic solvents such as amines. This method suffers from difficulties relating to regeneration of the solvents by heating. Solid sorbents would be more economical. Elimination of CH₄ from the atmosphere has received somewhat less attention.

C. N. R. Rao and colleagues, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore, India, have shown that graphene-like borocarbonitrides (B_xC_yN_z) have a very high uptake of both CO₂ and CH₄ due to their large surface areas. The uptake of CO₂ for the best BC₂N sample was 64 wt% at room temperature. Methane uptake ranged from 7.5–17.3 wt%.
Comparison with graphenes and activated charcoal showed that BC₂N performs better than both for the uptake of CO₂ and CH₄.

^{Image: Preferred sites of CH₄ and CO₂ adsorption on BCN.}

^{© Wiley-VCH}

• Remarkable Uptake of CO₂ and CH₄ by Graphene-Like Borocarbonitrides, B_xC_yN_z
  N. Kumar, K. S. Subrahmanyam, P. Chaturbedy, K. Raidongia, A. Govindaraj, K. P. S. S. Hembram, A. K. Mishra, U. V. Waghmare, C. N. R. Rao,
  ChemSusChem 2011.
  DOI: 10.1002/cssc.201100197

See also:

• C. N. R. Rao
  C. N. R. Rao talks to ChemViews about naomaterials, research in India, and the EurJIC special issue of which he is the guest editor