Omar Yaghi: Here. Now. UCLA.
Omar Yaghi, UCLA Chemistry and Biochemistry Professor, talks about how molecular building blogs may hold the key to reducing carbon emissions.
Clean energy could save our planet. And when it arrives, Omar Yaghi will be one of the scientists who make it possible. Yaghi, UCLA professor of chemistry and biochemistry, is the creator of Metal Organic Frameworks, or MOFs, a kind of crystalline sponge which can store amazing quantities of natural gas, hydrogen or CO2 in very small spaces. He's also the inventor of "reticular chemistry," or the stitching together of molecules into extended structures. "If we were just to take the automobiles now using natural gas, like the buses in L.A. or sedans in Italy or taxis in Southeast Asia, if you stuff the tank with MOF, you can drive twice as long or twice as far," explains Yaghi. Small wonder energy companies are interested in Yaghi's research.
Published: Sunday, April 19, 2009
