One remedy for rising carbon dioxide levels and impending climate change is to absorb the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere and lock it up in solids. These can be buried or better still be used as alternatives for petrochemical feedstocks for industry and fuels. Porphyrin molecules in green plants help convert incident sunlight and atmospheric carbon dioxide into sugars, so they make promising targets for CO₂ absorption materials.

A team at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Jadavpur, has used a facile one-pot, bottom-up approach to synthesizing iron-containing porous organic polymers (Fe-POPs). These materials have, the team says, an exceptionally high capacity for absorbing carbon dioxide gas.

• Porphyrin based porous organic polymers: novel synthetic strategy and exceptionally high CO₂ adsorption capacity
  A. Modak, M. Nandi, J. Mondal, A. Bhaumik,
  Chem. Commun. 2012.
  DOI: 10.1039/C1CC14275E