|
Refer to Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs), the subject of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Its awardees are Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson, and Omar M. Yaghi.
The framework are these crystals with spaces that tiny, microscopic molecules can squeeze in and/or out of. MOFs originated with known experimentation by Richard Robson in 1989. He created a crystal with lots of holes in it, or "innumerable cavities," according to nobelprize.org. He took copper ions and a particular molecule attracted to those ions, and combined them. Since they were chemically attracted, they bonded, and that's how the crystal with lots of holes formed. The resulting crystal was easy to break, so several years later -- over the course of 11 years -- came the foundation of MOF discoveries. Omar M. Yaghi eventually made a "very stable" MOF crystal, and he showed that that crystal could be changed into new properties. During those years, Susumu Kitigawa showed that gases are one of the chemicals that can squeeze in and/or out of MOFs. Since then, chemists have made 10x thousands of different MOFs. Their reported applications may include the breakdown of environmental contaminants from human and industrial waste, and the trapping of toxic gases in the air. Maybe the Air-Gen technology by Jun Yao and Xiaomeng Liu is an application of this reported outgrowth in different MOFs. It was the subject of one of my posts a couple years ago. See "Humidity converted to electricity with device by UMass professor" below. According to the Nobel Prize press release, Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) can catalyze chemical reactions. Does Air-Gen's electrical charge imbalance from percolated moisture qualify? It also states that MOFs can conduct electricity. I think Gen-Air's primary function is the generation of electricity. A WaPo subscriber gifted me the article that my post was referencing, so I don't have immediate access to it. But I can say that the conduction of electricity is part of the transmission of electricity for use as a utility. I remembered a news feature from early COVID about the growth of wind farming in Kansas and wind farms moreover in tornado alley. I also remembered the climbing share price and popularity of Tesla during COVID. I concluded, "Given THE STORAGE, [Air-Gen] would be more efficient for electric vehicles than charging stations or operating wind turbines in the peak hours of the night, like in Texas." (Emphasis mine.)
Lightly edited as standalone post from comment to "Humidity converted to electricity with device by UMass professor."
Jubalyn ExWilliams lives in Pennsylvania (United States). You can find the follow-ups to some of her previous posts, including "Why Air-Gen technology reminds me of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry," at landturn.com/blog.
She has no affiliation with or financial investment in Air-Gen technology, past or present.
Related: Humidity converted to electricity with device by UMass professor (2023)
Related: Environmental Committee: How to Switch to Renewable Energy in Pa. (2021) Related: How to Switch to Renewable Energy in Pennsylvania (2021) Related: How to Switch to Renewable Energy in Pennsylvania, II (2021) Related: "Confessions of Rogue Nuclear Regulator" (Jaczko) (2025) Related: Texas HQ for New York Stock Exchange coming soon (2025)
0 Comments
|
Archives
October 2025
|



